Constantine Phipps (Lord Chancellor of Ireland)

Early 18th century engraved portrait of Sir Constantine Phipps after John Simon

Sir Constantine Henry Phipps (1656–1723) was an English-born lawyer who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His term of office was marked by bitter political faction-fighting and he faced repeated calls for his removal. His descendants held the titles Earl of Mulgrave and Marquess of Normanby. Sir William Phips, the Governor of Massachusetts, was his cousin.[1][2]

Early life

He was born in Reading, the third son of Francis Phipps and Anne Sharpe. Though they described themselves as "gentry", his family do not seem to have had much money: Constantine received a free education at Reading School; and his uncle James emigrated to Maine where his son William, the future Governor, was born. Constantine won a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford in 1672.

He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1678 and called to the Bar in 1684. He was a lawyer of real ability, but also a strong Tory and suspected Jacobite,[3] which hindered his career. His name became associated with political cases: he was junior counsel for the defence in the prosecution of Sir John Fenwick for his part in the conspiracy against William III in 1696. It was his management of the defence of Henry Sacheverell, impeached for an inflammatory sermon, in 1710, that made his name and apparently caused Queen Anne to favour him.

Lord Chancellor of Ireland

In 1710 Richard Freeman, the popular Lord Chancellor of Ireland, died of a brain disease, and Phipps was chosen to succeed him. He arrived in Ireland in December and immediately became embroiled in controversy, especially as he was also appointed Lord Justice of Ireland, together with Richard Ingoldsby, and was a key member of the Dublin administration. As a convinced Tory, he sought to "pack" local councils with politically reliable sheriffs and justices of the peace. In Dublin itself the results were disastrous: a Whig Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir John Eccles, was elected but the Government refused to recognise his election, and for two years the capital had no effective Government.[4]

Other generally smaller incidents added to Phipps' unpopularity: although his good intentions need not be doubted, he showed very poor political judgment, especially in the Dudley Moore case. For several years it had been the custom to celebrate William III's landing at Torbay on 5 November with a performance of the play Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe. In 1712 the Government ordered that the prologue, which was considered too inflammatory, be omitted. When a young gentleman called Dudley Moore went on stage to read it a scuffle broke out and he was charged with riot. This struck many people as an over-reaction: the prosecution lagged and was seemingly about to be withdrawn when Phipps made a speech to Dublin Corporation on the disorder in the city, and specifically referred to the Moore case. It is unlikely that he intended to influence the result of the trial, but the speech was widely seen as an interference with the course of justice.[5]

Moore's case was contrasted with that of Edward Lloyd, a bookseller who published the Memoirs of the Chevalier St.George, better known as the Old Pretender. He was prosecuted for publishing seditious matter, but Phipps intervened to end the proceedings by nolle prosequi. His motives were humane - Lloyd was a relatively poor man and the publication was purely a commercial venture, without any political undertones - but it was widely seen as further evidence of a Jacobite conspiracy. Phipps' well-meant efforts to ban the annual procession round the statue of William III in College Green increased his unpopularity.[6] In 1713 it was rumoured, wrongly, that the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Shrewsbury, had made it a condition of taking up office that Phipps be dismissed, together with his main ally on the Bench, Richard Nutley.[7]

In the 1713 general election Phipps undertook to secure a Tory majority: but in fact the new House of Commons was deeply hostile to him. By the spring of 1714 he was described as "the pivot on which all debate turned":[8] yet any of his actions which were denounced by the Commons found support in the House of Lords. A petition from the Commons to the Queen demanding his removal was followed by a counter-petition from the Lords in his defence. The Queen's death at the beginning of August resolved the problem since her successor George I simply dismissed her Irish judges en bloc.

Last years

Unlike some of his colleagues Phipps was left in peace after his dismissal and his last years were uneventful. He spoke at the trial of George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton for his acts treason during the Jacobite Rising of 1715, but was severely reprimanded by the presiding judge for speaking without permission. In 1723 he assisted in the defence of Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, also on a charge of treason, but he died at Middle Temple on 9 October. He was buried at White Waltham in Berkshire.

Family

Phipps married Catherine Sawyer, daughter of George Sawyer, and granddaughter of Sir Robert Sawyer who was Attorney General to Charles II, counsel for the defence at the Trial of the Seven Bishops in the reign of James II and Speaker of the House of Commons. Phipps and Catherine had one son, William, and a daughter, Catherine, who married Colonel Henry Ingoldsby, MP for Limerick, son of Colonel Richard Ingoldsby.

William married Lady Catherine Annesley, daughter of James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey; she was a granddaughter of James II. Their son was Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave; later generations added the titles Earl of Mulgrave and Marquess of Normanby. The 1st Marquess was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1835 to 1839, and unlike his ancestor was popular with the Irish.

Character

Phipps is a difficult character to judge: he was divisive in his lifetime and had also divided historians. Duhigg [9] thought badly of him, and Elrington Ball, in the definitive study of the pre-1921 Irish judiciary, dealt harshly with Phipps as a foolish, vain, self-important man whose extreme political views paralysed political life and brought the administration of Dublin to a halt. On the other hand, O'Flanagan in his work on the Irish Chancellors spoke highly of Phipps as a gifted and moderate man who made an honest attempt to calm political and religious strife in Ireland.

He was a fine lawyer, and a reforming Chancellor: O'Flanagan praises his efforts to make litigation cheaper and faster, and suggests this was one cause of his unpopularity within his own profession.[10] He showed poor judgement in politics, but there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of his beliefs, which were no more extreme than those of many of his contemporaries. He was certainly to blame in part for the paralysis in the Dublin city government, but it is hardly fair to suggest as Ball seems to that he was wholly responsible:[11] indeed all his actions found supporters. If he made enemies he also had friends and it is notable that both Jonathan Swift and George Berkeley spoke well of him.

Notes

  1. ↑ Dunlop, DNB
  2. ↑ O'Flanagan, pp. 536-537 (indicating William was Constantine's father)
  3. ↑ Ball, p. 35
  4. ↑ Ball, p. 40.
  5. ↑ Ball, p. 44.
  6. ↑ O'Flanagan, p. 541.
  7. ↑ Ball p.49
  8. ↑ Ball, p. 50.
  9. ↑ Duhigg, p. 284
  10. ↑ O'Flanagan, p. 336
  11. ↑ Ball, p.50

References

Legal offices
In commission
Title last held by
Richard Freeman		 Lord Chancellor of Ireland
1710–1714 		Succeeded by
Alan Brodrick
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