James Adair (serjeant-at-law)
James Adair, KS (died 21 July 1798) was an Irish serjeant-at-law.
He was admitted to Peterhouse, Cambridge, and took a B.A. in 1764, and M.A. in 1767.[1] He was educated in law and in due course called to the bar by the society of Lincoln's Inn. In the early part of the reign of George III he was ranked among the advocates of the popular side; in 1771, he was employed as counsel in the famous case of the House of Commons against the printers of "Letters of Junius" and in this and other instances gave so much satisfaction to the citizens, that, on the death of Glynn, he was elected Recorder of London,[2] a post he held until 1789.[3]
In 1774, he took the degree of serjeant, and afterwards confined his practice chiefly to the Common Pleas, in which court,—upon his promotion to be a king's serjeant (1782),—he for some years took the lead. On the rupture of the Whigs after the French revolution, he attached himself to the moderate party of Burke's division and in 1794 was one of the counsel for the crown against Hardy, Tooke, and others, but had no very active part assigned him.[2] In April, 1788 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society [4]
In 1796, he led against the crown, with Erskine as his junior, in defence of Stone, accused of treason, but acquitted. At different times he held a seat in Parliament, having been Member of Parliament (MP) for Cockermouth from 1775 to 1780,[5] and from 1793 until his death was member for Higham Ferrers.[6] He also was counsel to the Board of Ordnance, and Chief Justice of Chester. His manner as a speaker was somewhat coarse, but it was impressive; he had great copiousness and fluency of delivery, and his powers of reasoning were of the highest order.
He died suddenly at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on 21 July 1798.[2] He was buried at Bunhill Fields burying ground.
Works
Adair was author of several tracts.[2]
- Thoughts on the Dismission of Officers for their Conduct in Parliament (1764)
- Observations on the Power of Alienation in the Crown (1768)
- Discussions of the Law of Libels (1785)
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Rose, Hugh James (1857). A New General Biographical Dictionary, London: B. Fellowes et al.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The first edition of this text is available as an article on Wikisource:
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. - ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)[self-published source][better source needed]
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 3)[self-published source][better source needed]
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Cockermouth 1775–1780 With: Ralph Gowland |
Succeeded by John Lowther John Baynes-Garforth |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Higham Ferrers 1793–1798 |
Succeeded by Stephen Thurston Adey |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of Chester 1796–1798 |
Succeeded by William Grant |
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the New General Biography
- Articles incorporating Cite DNB template
- Accuracy disputes from March 2012
- Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012
- Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
- 1798 deaths
- British MPs 1774–80
- British MPs 1790–96
- British MPs 1796–1800
- Irish legal writers
- Irish lawyers
- Members of Lincoln's Inn
- Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
- Serjeants-at-law
- Fellows of the Royal Society
