The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

JOHN CAMPBELL

John Campbell (Lord Campbell) was a Lord-chancellor of England. He was born in 1779 at Cupar, Fife and died in 1861. He was the son of Dr. George Campbell, minister of Cupar, Fife, and was educated at Cupar, and afterwards at the University of St Andrews. In 1798 he went to London, and after acting some time as reporter and theatrical critic to the Morning Chronicle, entered himself a student of Lincoln's Inn, and in 1806 was called to the bar. He acquired a considerable practice, was elected member of parliament for Stafford in 1830, and two years after made solicitor-general.

In 1841 he was created Lord-chancellor of Ireland and raised to the peerage as Baron Campbell of St Andrews. Some years after he accepted a post in the ministry of Lord John Russell and in 1850 was made chief-justice of the Queen's Bench, and nine years after was raised to the woolsack as lord-chancellor. He is known as the author of a considerable work, Lives of the Chancellors, which, with its supplementary volumes, Lives of the Chief-justices, enjoyed great popularity.
Research John Campbell