Social Victorians/People/Herschell

Also Known As

• Family name: Herschell
• Farrer (or Farrar) Herschell
• Baron Herschell of the City of Durban (UK peerage)
  • Farrar Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell of the City of Durban (8 February 1886 – 1 March 1899)
  • Richard Farrer Herschell, 2nd Baron Herschell of the City of Durban (1 March 1899 – 14 October 1929)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Farrar Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell

Legal Profession

• Thomas Chitty
• Archibald Levin Smith
• Arthur Charles
• James Hannen
• Edward James
• John Richard Quain

Organizations

Farrar Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell

• University College London (BA, 1952)
• Lincoln's Inn (1860)
• Bencher, Lincoln's Inn (1872)
• Queen's Counsel (Q.C.) (1872)
• Conservative Member of Parliament for Durham (1874–1885)
• Solicitor-General, appointed by Gladstone (1880–1885)
• Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, appointed by Gladstone (1886)
• Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, appointed by Gladstone (1892–1895)
• Chancellor, London University (1893)
• Knight Grand Cross, Order of the Bath (G.C.B.) (1893)
• Clubs
  • Member, the Brooks's Club
  • Member, the Athenaenum Club
  • Member, the Windham Club
  • Member, the Devonshire Club
  • Member, the National Liberal Club

Timeline

1876 December 20, Farrer Herschell and Agnes Adela Porcher married.

1880 May 13, Farrer Herschell was knighted.

1886 February 8, Farrer Herschell was created 1st Baron Herschell of the City of Durban.

1897 July 2, Friday, Lord and Lady Herschell attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House.

1899 March 22, Herschell was buried in Tincleton, Dorset, after two funerals, one in Washington, D.C., and the second after his body had been moved back to the U.K. in Westminster Abbey. The funeral in the U.S. "was attended by the president and vice-president of the United States, by the cabinet ministers, the judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the joint high commission [Anglo-American Arbitration Commission], and a large number of senators and other representative men." The funeral in Westminster Abbey "was attended by Lord Halsbury, Lord Kimberley, Arthur Balfour and other representatives of the British, American, and Canadian governments."

Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell in costume as Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

Agnes Adela (née Kindersley), Lady Herschell in costume as Night. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Sir Edward Coke

Lord Farrer Herschell (at 496) and Lady Agnes Herschell (at 497) attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball and both had their portraits taken.

W. & D. Downey's portrait of "Agnes Adela (née Kindersley), Lady Herschell as Night" in costume is #237 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Lady Herschell as Night."

W. & D. Downey's portrait of "Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell as Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke" in costume is #238 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Lord Herschell as Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke."

Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) was an Elizabethan and Jacobean jurist who continued to be influential and is still respected. He was Attorney General for the unjust trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and he prosecuted the major conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot. The early 17th-century portrait of Coke (right) is in the collection at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. The text in Latin reads, "Quia observasti mandata mea et fecisti quod rectum est in oculis meis et perfecisti cursum tibi propositum cum patienta et suspiciensi ad me totam me fiduciam collocasti reposita est tibi corona gloriae."

Demographics

• Nationality: British
• Farrer Herschell: father was Polish Jew but converted to Nonconformist Christianity as a young adult
• Agnes Porcher Herschell: British

Family

• Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell of the City of Durban (2 November 1837 – 1 March 1899)
• Agnes Adela Porcher ( – 23 February 1902)

1. Richard Farrer Herschell, 2nd Baron Herschell of the City of Durban (22 May 1878 – 14 October 1929)
2. Helen Mowbray Herschell (20 June 1879 – 30 November 1879)
3. Hon. Agnes Freda Herschell (9 October 1881 – 5 May 1942)
4. Hon. Muriel Fanny Herschell (4 April 1883 – 26 October 1956)

Notes and Questions

1. Hon. Agnes Freda Herschell was a sculptor "in bronze and plaster," exhibited works in the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris (1926) and the Royal Academy (1926–1938). She married Sir Archibald Williamson in 1912.