John Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington

He gained the title of 1st Viscount Ossington. He held the office of Speaker of the House of Commons in 1857.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Denison,_1st_Viscount_Ossington

Denison was born at Ossington, Nottinghamshire, the eldest son of John Denison (d. 1820), and the brother of George Anthony Denison, a conservative churchman. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

Political career

A Whig, he became Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1823,[1] being returned for Hastings three years later, and holding for a short time a subordinate position in George Canning's ministry. Defeated in 1830 both at Newcastle-under-Lyme and then at Liverpool, Denison secured a seat as one of the members for Nottinghamshire in 1831. After the Great Reform Act he represented the southern division of Nottinghamshire from 1832 until the general election of 1837.[3] He was appointed High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 1839–40.[4]

Denison then represented Malton from 1841 to 1857,[5] and North Nottinghamshire from 1857 to 1872.[3] In April 1857 Denison was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. He was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time.[6] Re-elected at the beginning of three successive parliaments he retained this position until February 1872, when he resigned and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Ossington, of Ossington in the County of Nottingham.[7] He refused, however, to accept the pension usually given to retiring Speakers. Denison gave an explanation — referred to as Speaker Denison's rule — as to how the Speaker should exercise his or her casting vote in the event of a tie.

The Speaker's Commentary

While in office, Denison formed the view that the public needed a plain, but complete and accurate, explanatory commentary on the Bible, and consulted some of the bishops as to the best way of supplying the work. Eventually the Archbishop of York undertook to organize the production of the commentary, under the editorship of Frederic Charles Cook, Canon of Exeter. A panel was appointed to advise the general Editor, comprising the Archbishop and the Regius Professors of Divinity of Oxford and Cambridge. Formally entitled The Bible Commentary, it became popularly known as "The Speaker's Commentary". It was first published in England, and subsequently in the United States by Charles Scribner's Sons.

Family

Lord Ossington married Lady Charlotte, daughter of William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, in 1827, but he left no children. He died on 7 March 1873, and his title became extinct. His Ossington Hall estate passed to his nephew William Evelyn Denison, son of his brother Sir William Thomas Denison.[8]

Ossington Street in London was named in his honour. Lady Ossington died in 1889.

• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 451