Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/399



. Subject to this interruption Hannen sat regularly in the House of Lords and the judicial committee of the privy council until his death, which occurred at his house in Lancaster Gate on 29 March 1894; he was buried in Norwood cemetery. He married, on 4 Feb. 1847, Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Nicholas Winsland, who died on 1 Dec. 1872, and he left a family surviving him.

A portrait of him by T. Blake Wirgman is in the possession of his son, the Hon. James Hannen, and a replica belongs to the benchers of the Middle Temple. Hannen's personal appearance and manner accorded in the most striking manner with the popular conception of a judge, as a grave, tranquil, impartial, and venerable officer. He had a peculiar gift for making his meaning perfectly clear in the fewest words, and could indicate rebuke by a word or an intonation. He was consequently master of his own court, and of every one that appeared before him, to an unusual degree, and the business before him was conducted with the happiest combination of deliberation and despatch.

General contemporary opinion of Hannen as a judge was expressed with but little exaggeration by Lord Coleridge when he said, sitting in the divorce court on the day of Hannen's funeral: 'If there has been a greater English judge during the seventy-three years of my life than Lord Hannen, it has not been my good fortune to see him or to know him,' and in the course of the same observations he described him as 'a man of great ability, of remarkable learning, of an intellect strong, capacious, penetrating, powerful, with a singular grasp of facts, and a great power of dealing with them when they were grasped like a master.' On the same day Sir F. Jeune, who had succeeded Hannen as president of the probate division, said: 'Lord Hannen pronounced many judgments which have become landmarks in the law. They are couched in that accurate and dignified language of which he was so great a master. But speaking in the presence of those who know I venture to say that his fame is even more securely based on his careful, his independent, and his decorous administration of justice day by day.'

[Times, 30 March 1894; Foster's Men at the Bar; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, iv. 157-8, viii. 415; private information.]  HARBORD, WILLIAM (1635?–1692), politician, born about 1635, was second son of Sir Charles Harbord by Mary Van Alst (, Northamptonshire, ii. 172). Sir Charles Harbord, who was knighted by Charles I on 29 May 1636, was surveyor-general of the land revenues of the crown under Charles I and Charles II (, Book of Knights, p. 194; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633-4, p. 70). He represented Launceston in the parliaments of 1661, 1678, and 1679, and many of his speeches are printed in Grey's 'Debates' (cf. iii. 46, 358). Burnet describes him as very rich and very covetous (Own Time, ed. Airy, ii. 87), and his reputation is severely handled in a pamphlet termed 'A List of the principal Labourers in the great Design of Popery and Arbitrary Government,' 1677, 4to, p. 3. He died in June 1679.

William Harbord is described as aged 26 in July 1661 (, London Marriage Licences, p. 621). During the Protectorate he travelled and was probably engaged in trade in Turkey (, Debates, v. 41). His political career begins in 1672, when hein 1661, when he was returned to the House of Commons for Clifton, Dartmouth, and Hardness borough. In 1672 he [sic] became secretary to the Earl of Essex (Capel, Arthur), lord lieutenant of Ireland, and was charged to keep him informed of political affairs in England, and to act as his representative in parliament and court (, Debates, ii. 437;, Essex Papers, i. 184, 195, 205). Essex thought Harbord 'a very quick man for despatch of business,' but did not trust him too far (ib. i. 143).

In October 1673 Harbord signalised himself by attacking the speaker, Sir Edward Seymour, as unfit for the post he occupied (ib. i. 140; Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, ii. 70;, Debates, ii. 188; viii. 79). But though this made him unpopular at court he nevertheless was granted (28 May 1674) a pension of 500l. per annum on the Irish military establishment (Rawlinson MS. B. 492, f. 137). In the debates of 1676-8 Harbord spoke often against the alliance with France (, iv. 176, 198, 387; v. 43), and pressed for the removal of all papists from the king's person (ib. vi. 87, 205, 258). He was a firm believer in the reality of the popish plot, and in concert with Ralph Montagu, afterwards Duke of Montagu [q. v.], whom he helped to get into parliament, took an important part in the attack on Danby (ib. vi. 345, 387). In the parliament of 1679, in which he represented Thetford, he spoke against Danby's pardon, attacked Lauderdale, and was eager for the disbanding of the army (ib. vii. 23. 64, 173, 193). Barillon in his letters describes Harbord as very serviceable, and states that he paid him 500 guineas, but it is possible that the money was embezzled by Coleman. Harbord's own remarks on Barillon, and his conduct with respect to Coleman, may be 