Michael Morris, Baron Morris

Irish lawyer and judge

The Right Honourable

The Lord Morris

PC PC (Ire)

Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland
In office
1887–1889
Monarch| Victoria
Preceded by| George Augustus Chichester May
Succeeded by| Peter O'Brien
Personal details
Born| 14 November 1826 (1826-11-14)
Galway, County Galway
Died| 8 September 1901 (1901-09-09) (aged 74)
Spiddal, County Galway
Nationality| Irish
Alma mater| Trinity College Dublin

Michael Morris, Baron Morris and 1st Baron Killanin, PC, PC (Ire) (14 November 1826 – 8 September 1901), known as Sir Michael Morris, Bt, from 1885 to 1889, was an Irish lawyer and judge. He was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland from 1887 to 1889 and sat in the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1889 to 1900.

## Background and education

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Born in Galway, eldest son of Martin Morris and Julia Blake, Morris was educated at Galway College and Trinity College Dublin, graduating BA in 1847. His father was a justice of the peace, and in 1841 became the first Roman Catholic to be High Sheriff of Galway Town, an office his son also held. The Morrises were a long-established merchant family, who were one of the fourteen Tribes of Galway who dominated the town's commercial life. His mother, a doctor's daughter, died of cholera in 1837.

## Legal and judicial career

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After being called to the Irish bar in 1849, Morris was appointed High Sheriff of Galway Town for 1849–50. Eight years later he was made Recorder of Galway, and in 1863 became one of the country's Queen's Counsels. He was the recognized leader of the Connacht Bar, impressing clients and juries alike with his wit and commonsense. Elected to Parliament in 1865 as Liberal member for Galway,[1] Morris became a Conservative the following year when he took office in Lord Derby's administration as Solicitor-General for Ireland. Though a Roman Catholic he was a staunch supporter of the Act of Union 1800, but it is said that he was not enthusiastic about the Reform Act 1867. In late 1866 he was appointed Attorney-General for Ireland, and the following year became third Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, eventually being made its Chief Justice in 1876. As a judge, he showed the same wit and commonsense which had been his hallmarks at the Bar, and was notably impatient of legal technicalities.

In 1885, Morris was created a Baronet, of Spiddal in the County of Galway,[2] and two years later he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland. In 1889, on being made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, he was given a life peerage as Baron Morris, of Spiddal in the County of Galway,[3] and sworn a member of the Privy Council.[4] He was well regarded by his fellow Law Lords, despite his frequent dissenting judgments.

Eleven years later, on his retirement from office, Lord Morris was made an hereditary peer as Baron Killanin, of Galway in the County of Galway.[5]

### Judgements

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* British South Africa Co v Companhia de Moçambique [1893] AC 602 – the House of Lords overturned a Court of Appeal decision and by so doing established the Mozambique rule, a common law rule in private international law that renders actions relating to title in foreign land, the right to possession of foreign land, and trespass to foreign land non-justiciable in common law jurisdictions.[6]
* Harvey v Facey, 1893

## Family

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Family vault of Michael Morris, 1st Baron Killanin, in Bohermore Cemetery, Galway

Lord Morris died at Spiddal in September 1901, aged 74, and was buried in the family vault in Bohermore Cemetery at Galway.

He married, in 1860, Anna Hughes, daughter of Henry George Hughes, Baron of the Court of Exchequer and his wife Sarah Isabella l'Estrange. She was the child of a mixed marriage, and had been brought up in the Church of Ireland. They had four sons and six daughters. The eldest son Martin Morris was an MP and succeeded in the barony of Killanin and baronetcy.

Another son was Lt. Col. George Henry Morris, who was the first commanding officer to lead an Irish Guards battalion into battle and was killed in action during the Retreat from Mons in September 1914. George's son Michael went on to serve as the sixth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1972 to 1980. He succeeded his uncle Martin as Baron Killanin in 1927.

Coat of arms of Michael Morris, Baron Morris  |

Crest
On a fasces Proper a lion’s head erased Argent gutté de sang.
Escutcheon
Ermine a fess indented Sable in base a lion rampant of the last armed and langued Gules.
Motto
Si Deus Nobiscum Quis Contra Nos[7]

|

## References

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1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 1)
2. ^ "No. 25511". The London Gazette. 15 September 1885. p. 4334.
3. ^ "No. 25999". The London Gazette. 6 December 1889. p. 7014.
4. ^ "No. 26002". The London Gazette. 17 December 1889. p. 7275.
5. ^ "No. 27202". The London Gazette. 15 June 1900. p. 3751.
6. ^ "Report 63 (1988) – Jurisdiction of Local Courts Over Foreign Land". Law Reform Commission, New South Wales. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 1 September 2008. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
7. ^ Burke's Peerage. 1959.

* "The North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld. : 1892 – 1905) Monday 16 September 1901-DEATH OF A LAW LORD". North Queensland Register (Townsville, QLD. : 1892 – 1905). 16 September 1901. p. 36. Retrieved 4 August 2013 - via Trove.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Morris, 1st Baron Killanin.

* Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Killanin

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Preceded by

John Orrell Lever
Lord Dunkellin

|  Member of Parliament for Galway Borough
1865–1867
With:  Sir Rowland Blennerhasset, Bt | Succeeded by

Sir Rowland Blennerhasset, Bt
George Morris

Legal offices
Preceded by

Edward Sullivan

|  Solicitor-General for Ireland
August–November 1866  | Succeeded by

Hedges Eyre Chatterton

Preceded by

John Edward Walsh

|  Attorney-General for Ireland
1866–1867  | Succeeded by

Hedges Eyre Chatterton

Preceded by

James Henry Monahan

|  Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas
1876–1887  | Office abolished
Preceded by

George Augustus Chichester May

|  Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland
1887–1889  | Succeeded by

Peter O'Brien

Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation |  Baron Killanin
1900–1901  | Succeeded by

Martin Morris

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation |  Baronet
(of Spiddal)
1885–1901  | Succeeded by

Martin Morris

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