Lyndhurst

Lyndhurst, John Singleton Copley, Baron (1772-1863), English statesman, was the son of the painter John Singleton Copley. He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, but when he was three years old his parents removed to England. He received his education at Chiswick and the university of Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1804. At first he was not very successful, but his abilities gradually attracted notice, and after his acceptance of a Government seat in the House (1818) his progress became rapid. The sincerity of his political views at this time has been doubted, but henceforward, at any rate, he showed himself a consistent and even bigoted Tory. He became Solicitor-General in 1819, Attorney-General in 1824, and Master of the Rolls in 1826, and was Lord Chancellor under Canning, Goderich, and Wellington (1827-30), and Chief Baron of the Exchequer and leader of the Opposition from 1830 to 1834. His opposition to all the measures of the Government during the great epoch of reform (1835-41) was very acceptable to one section of his party, who proposed him as leader in place of Peel. He was again Chancellor from 1841 to 1846, when he ceased to take an active part in public life.