James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale
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James Parke, Baron Wensleydale (22 March 1782–25 February 1868) was an English judge, born near Liverpool.
[edit] Career
He was educated at The King's School, Macclesfield and Trinity College, Cambridge. He had a brilliant career at the university, winning the Craven scholarship, Sir William Browne's gold medal, and being fifth wrangler and senior chancellor's medallist in classics.
Called to the bar at the Inner Temple he rapidly acquired an excellent common law practice and in 1828 was raised to the king's bench, while still of the junior bar. In 1834 he was transferred from the king's bench to the court of exchequer, where for some twenty years he exercised considerable influence. The changes introduced by the Common Law Procedure Acts of 1854 and 1855 proved too much for his legal conservatism and he resigned in December of the latter year.
The government under Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, anxious to have his services as a law lord, proposed to confer on him a life peerage, but this was opposed by the House of Lords, and he was eventually created a hereditary peer (1856). He died at his residence, Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire. Since he had outlived his three sons, the title became extinct.
[edit] Marriage and children
On 8 April 1817, Parke married Cecilia Arabella Frances Barlow (c. 1794 - 10 May 1879). Though their sons died young, the Parkes were parents to three daughters with further descendants.
- Mary Parke (d. 26 August 1843). She married Charles Wentworth George Howard, a son of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle. They were parents of George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle.
- Cecilia Anne Parke (d. 20 April 1845). She married Matthew White Ridley, 4th baronet and was mother of Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley.
- Charlotte Alice Parke (d. 5 January 1908). She married William Lowther, a grandson of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
