| The Right Honourable The Lord Lyndhurst PC |
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|---|---|
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 2 May 1827 – 24 November 1830 |
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| Monarch | George IV William IV |
| Prime Minister | George Canning The Viscount Goderich The Duke of Wellington |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Eldon |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Brougham and Vaux |
| In office 21 November 1834 – 8 April 1835 |
|
| Monarch | William IV |
| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Peel, Bt |
| Preceded by | The Lord Brougham and Vaux |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Cottenham |
| In office 3 September 1841 – 27 June 1846 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Peel, Bt |
| Preceded by | The Lord Cottenham |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Cottenham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 May 1772 Boston, Massachusetts British America |
| Died | 21 October 1863 (aged 91) London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Tory |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Sarah Brunsden (d. 1834) (2) Georgina Goldsmith |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst PC KS FRS (21 May 1772 – 12 October 1863), was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
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Lyndhurst was born at Boston, Massachusetts, the son of painter John Singleton Copley and his wife Susanna Farnham (née Clarke), and was educated at a private school and Trinity College, Cambridge [1] where he graduated as second wrangler.
Called to the bar at Lincolns Inn in 1804, he gained a considerable practice. He was appointed a serjeant-at-law on 6 July 1813. In 1817 he was one of the counsel for Dr J. Watson, tried for his share in the Spa Fields riots. Lyndhurst's performance attracted the attention of Lord Castlereagh and other Tory leaders, and he entered parliament as member for Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight. He afterwards sat for Ashburton (1818–1826) and for Cambridge University (1826–1827).
In December 1818, Copley was made King's Serjeant and Chief Justice of Chester. He became Solicitor General on 24 July 1819 and was knighted in October, became Attorney General in 1824, Master of the Rolls in 1826 and Lord Chancellor in 1827. On his appointment to the latter post he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lyndhurst, of Lyndhurst in the County of Southampton.[2] As solicitor-general he took a prominent part in the trial of Queen Caroline and was opposed to the Liberal measures which marked the end of the reign of George IV and the beginning of that of William IV. He was Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer from 1831 to 1834. During the Melbourne government from 1835 to 1841 he figured conspicuously as an obstructionist in the House of Lords. His former adversary Lord Brougham, disgusted at his treatment by the Whig leaders, soon became his most powerful ally in opposition. Lyndhurst held the chancellorship from 1827–1830, 1834–1835, and 1841-1846. As he was in regard to Catholic emancipation, so in the agitation against the Corn Laws, he opposed reform until Peel, his chief, gave the signal for concession.
After 1846 and the disintegration of the Tory party over Peel's adoption of free trade, Lord Lyndhurst did not attend parliament sessions as often, but he continued to take a lively interest in public affairs and to make speeches. His address to the House of Lords on 19 June 1854, on the war with Russia, made a sensation in Europe, and throughout the Crimean War he was a strong advocate of the energetic prosecution of hostilities. In 1859 he denounced Napoleon III. His last speech was delivered in the House of Lords at the age of eighty-nine.
In 1819 Lord Lyndhurst married Sarah, daughter of Charles Brunsden and widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Thomas. She died in 1834 and three years later, in August 1837, he married Georgiana, daughter of Lewis Goldsmith. Since Georgiana came from a Jewish family, it may be her influence that led Lord Lyndhurst to support the Jewish Emancipation of 1858, when the law restricting the Parliamentary oath of office to Christians was changed, leading to the admission of Jews into parliament. He also advocated women's rights in questions of divorce. He died in London on 12 October 1863; since he left no son, in accordance with the times the title became extinct.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.