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'''Sir Edmond Stanley''' [[Serjeant-at-law|SL]] (1760–1843) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] lawyer and politician who served as [[Serjeant-at-Law]] of the [[Parliament of Ireland]], [[List of Recorders of Penang, Singapore and Malacca|Recorder of Prince of Wales Island]], now [[Penang]], and subsequently [[Chief Justice]] of [[Madras]]. The elopement of his teenage daughter Mary Anne in 1815 caused a notable scandal.

==Family ==
Born in Dublin in 1760, Stanley was baptised at [[St Werburgh's Church, Dublin]],<ref>St Werburgh's parish records, Representative Church Body Library, Braemar Park, Dublin</ref> a parish situated next to [[Dublin Castle]] attended by the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]] and members of the court . He was the son of James Stanley, an [[attorney-at-law|attorney]], and his wife Jane Kelly, and grandson of Edward Stanley of Low Park, [[County Roscommon]], the head of a colonial, [[Protestant Ascendancy]] family. He entered [[Trinity College Dublin]] in 1773, aged thirteen years old, was a [[scholar]] in 1777 and graduated [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1778.<ref>Alumni Dubliniensis, Record of Trinity College Dublin</ref> He entered the [[King's Inns]] where he was called to the Irish Bar, and the [[Inner Temple]] in London, and became a [[bencher]] of the King's Inns in 1789.<ref>King's Inns Admission Papers 1607-1867</ref>

In 1786 he married Jane Talbot, daughter of the Reverend John Talbot of Mount Talbot, County Roscommon and his first wife Elizabeth Rose. They had one daughter Mary Anne who married Captain Edward Trant Bontein in 1815. The marriage caused a considerable scandal as the couple [[eloped]] to [[Gretna Green]] when the bride was only 14; the groom, a widower, was 29.

==Political career ==

He entered the [[Parliament of Ireland]] as [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for [[Augher (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|Augher]] (1790–97) (together with Sir [[Sir John Stewart, 1st Baronet, of Athenree|John Stewart]], later [[Attorney General for Ireland]]), and for [[Lanesborough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|Lanesborough]] (1797–1800) (together with [[Richard Martin (Irish politician)|Richard Martin]], known as 'Humanity Dick').

He served as Third Serjeant in 1793 and from 1795 to 1801, and was appointed Prime Serjeant 1801-02. He resigned as Serjeant in 1802, apparently because of his massive debts. Possibly because of these debts he sold the family estates in Roscommon and moved to [[London]]. He repaired his fortunes sufficiently to buy an estate in [[Pembrokeshire]].

He was Commissioner of Appeals 1795-98, and became Commissioner of Accounts in 1802. He voted with the government against a proposal for an enquiry into the causes of the [[1798 Rising]], and (again with the Administration) in favour of the [[Act of Union 1800]] in 1799 and 1800 which dissolved and abolished the Parliament of Ireland. In 1798 he was sent under a special commission to Cork to preside at the treason trials held there in the wake of the Rising. He was knighted in 1807.<ref>History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800. Vol VI. Edith Mary Johnston-Liik (Ed). Ulster Historical Foundation. 2002.</ref>

==Judge ==

The court system in Prince of Wales Island became fully developed as a consequence of the 1807 Charter of Justice, whereby the [[British Crown]] established the right to a permanent Court of Judicature in the settlement of [[Penang]]. This was followed by the appointment of the first Supreme Court judge in 1807, designated as the 'Recorder' and Sir Edmond assumed office in 1808 as the First Recorder of the Supreme Court of Penang, where he is acknowledged as such and honoured to this day by the Penang Bar.<ref>.http://www.penangbar.org/history.php</ref> At the same time, Sir [[Stamford Raffles]], founder of [[Singapore]], was the first registrar of the Supreme Court. (The designation 'Judge' was subsequently substituted for that of 'Recorder'.) The Supreme Court of Penang, which was first housed at [[Fort Cornwallis]], was opened on 31 May 1808.

Stanley left Penang in December 1816 on being transferred to the [[Madras Presidency]] in 1817 as [[puisne judge]]. He was subsequently appointed as Chief Justice of the [[Madras Supreme Court]] on 17 May 1820 in succession to Sir [[John Henry Newbolt]].

==Last years==

He served until his resignation on 28 January 1825 when he retired to England. He was succeeded as Chief Justice by Sir Ralph Palmer. He died in [[Richmond, London]], (previously Surrey), in 1843. He was buried alongside his wife in the [[catacombs]] of [[Kensal Green Cemetery]]. He left his property to his daughter Mrs Bontein, on condition that she and her sons take the name Stanley. She died in [[Brussels]] in 1881.

==References==
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[[Category:1760 births]]
[[Category:1843 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish people]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:British lawyers]]
[[Category:Members of the Inner Temple]]
[[Category:British India judges]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Serjeants-at-law (England)]]
[[Category:Irish MPs 1790–1797]]
[[Category:Irish MPs 1798–1800]]
[[Category:Chief Justices of the Madras High Court]]
[[Category:British colonial judges in Asia]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Tyrone constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Longford constituencies]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's Inns]]

Edmond Stanley - Revision history

imported>Chrisdoyleorwell at 15:09, 15 July 2021