John Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell

GORELL, JOHN GORELL BARNES, 1st Baron (1848–1913), English judge, was born at Liverpool May 16 1848, the son of Henry Barnes, a shipowner. He was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1868. He began work as a solicitor, but was called to the bar in 1876, becoming Q.C. in 1888. He was well known as an expert in Admiralty cases, and in 1892 was made a judge of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division, becoming its president in 1905 on the retirement of Sir Francis Jeune (Lord St. Helier). He was made a privy councillor in 1905, and in 1909 was raised to the peerage. In 1909 he became chairman of the royal commission on divorce. Lord Gorell, who married in 1881 Mary, daughter of Thomas Mitchell, died at Mentone April 22 1913.

1922 Encyclopædia Britannica

Wikipedia contributors. "Gorell Barnes, 1st Baron Gorell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

JOHN GORELL BARNES, the first Lord Gorell, was born at Anfield Cottage, in the parish of Walton- on-the-Hill, near Liverpool, on May 16, 1848. He was descended from David Barnes, a member of a Derbyshire family settled in the neighbourhood of Chesterfield. David was born in 1741, the eldest son and third child of John Barnes and Elizabeth Alison, and grandson of Edmund Barnes, who died in 1725. David Barnes married Eleanor, daughter of Edward Gorell of Hazel Hall, Yorkshire.* They had three daughters and one son, John Gorell Barnes, the grandfather of the subject of this memoir. David Barnes died in 1805. John Gorell Barnes married Elizabeth Taylor Clay, a member of an old Derbyshire family living near Chesterfield, and they settled at Ashgate House, near that town. John Gorell Barnes also owned properties at Grassmore and Grasshill, at Barnes (near Dronfield), at Stretton Hall and Handley Lodge. There were eight children of this marriage, six sons and two daughters. Henry, the son and the father of a John Gorell Barnes, was the fourth child and the third son. The eldest son, John David, died at an early age while in business in London. Ellen, the second child, lived to the great age of ninety-five, and was the fairy spinster aunt of the next generation. William and Henry, the third and fourth children, went into business.

• The origin of the name Gorell is unknown. It is supposed by the family to be a corruption of the name Goring.
  

John Gorell Barnes, first lord Gorell (1848-1913) a memoir by J.E.G. de Montmorency (1920) at the Internet Archive

Henry Gorell Barnes
He was born at 80 Kensington Park Road, London on the 21st January 1882 and baptised at Holy Trinity C.of E. Church, Paddington, London on the 25th February 1882.
He was the eldest son of John Gorell Barnes and Mary Humpston (Mitchell). Mary was from Glasgow and his parents were married at Windsor Terrace, in that city on the 20th April 1881. Henry had two siblings, Ronald Gorell (born 1884) and Aura Ellida Gorell (born 1887).
His father, John, was born at Anfield Cottage, Walton in 1848. the eldest son of Henry and Georgiana Barnes who were both from Derbyshire. The ancestral home of the Barnes family was Ashgate House, Old Brampton, near Chesterfield where they were landowners and colliery proprietors. Photographs of Ashgate House can be seen at Brampton Old and New and Picture the Past.
Henry Barnes was a ship-owner and merchant engaged in the Australia and Brazil trade. At least three of his brothers had strong links to Liverpool. Edmund and Alfred married the Wilson sisters at Toxteth Park in 1854 before returning to Derbyshire. Charles Barnes re-located to Liverpool where he was also in the Australia trade. He lived in the Wavertree and Mossley Hill districts. Charles' grandson, Charles Roper Gorell-Barnes, (second cousin to Henry Gorell Barnes) also died in the First World War after winning the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order
Henry Barnes died at Anfield Cottage in February 1865 leaving four children of school age and the equivalent of £5 million. His wife died at Matlock Bath in 1873 at which time the family were living at Oakenholme, Little Saughall near Chester and her son, John, was describing himself as a gentleman.
John Gorell Barnes had an extremely distinguished judicial career. He entered Peterhouse College, Cambridge the year his father died, graduating B.A. in 1868. He was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1873 and Called to the Bar in 1876.
At the time of the 1881 census, just a few weeks before his marriage, John, his brother Alan Sedgwick Barnes - a first-class cricketer - and sister Charlotte Linda - were living together at 80 Kensington Park Road, London.
In 1888 he was invested as a Queen's Counsel on the Northern Circuit, he was Knighted in 1892. He was a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, 1892-1905.
At the time of the 1891 census Henry Gorell Barnes was staying at a lodging house at 14 Marine Parade, Folkestone with his parents, siblings, and two servants, possibly on holiday. By 1911 the family's London home was 14 Kensington Park Gardens, where the household included seven resident servants. They also had a country residence at Stratford Hills, Stratford St.Mary, Suffolk.
John Gorell Barnes was created 1st Baron Gorell of Brampton, Derbyshire in 1909. He died at Mentone, France on the 22 April 1913. Probate of his estate was obtained by his wife at London. His effects were valued at £69,448 0s 4d (£6.7 million at current values.)
His wife, Baroness Gorell, died on the 28th November 1918 at 54 Campden Hill Court, London. Probate of her estate was obtained at London by her two surviving children. Her effects were valued at £43,129 11s 1d (£2.5 million at current values.)

Henry Gorell Barnes, Merseyside Roll of Honour

England Births and Christenings

• Name John Gorell Barnes
• Residence Place Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancashire, England
• Gender Male
• Christening Date 11 Jun 1848
• Christening Date (Original) 11 Jun 1848
• Christening Place St. Mary's, Walton-on-the-Hill, Lancashire, England
• Father's Name Henry Barnes
• Mother's Name Georgiana Barnes

  ---

  
  

Census:

• 1851
• 1881
• 1891