Blackburne

Blackburne, Francis. Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was born in 1782 at Great Footstown, County Meath. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1798, kept his terms at King's Inn, and thereafter proceeded to Lincoln's Inn, London. In 1805 he was called to the bar, and in 1822 administered the Insurrection Act in the city and county of Limerick. In 1830 he became attorney-general for Ireland, under Earl Grey, and again in 1841 under Sir Robert Peel, succeeding Sir Michael O'Loghlen as Master of the Rolls in Ireland in the following year. His subsequent appointments were in 1846 to the chief-justiceship of Queen's Bench, in 1852 and 1866 to the Lord-Chancellorship by Lord Derby, and in 1856 Lord Justice of Appeal by Lord Palmerston. He was for several years vice-chancellor of Dublin University, and in 1867, the year of his death, he declined the offer of a baronetcy by Lord Derby.