Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/223

 countryman, and patron, Lord Mansfield, he published a ‘Treatise on the Law of Marine Insurance’ in 1787, largely based on Lord Mansfield's opinions and decisions. This proved useful and successful, passed through six editions in his lifetime, and early brought its author into practice, especially in mercantile causes. It reached its eighth edition in 1842. Though not an eloquent advocate, he was a lucid, earnest, and persuasive one, and his habit of constantly discussing cases with Lord Mansfield gave him considerable learning and experience in the application of principle. In 1791 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in 1795 recorder of Preston, in Trinity vacation 1799 a king's counsel, in 1802 recorder of Durham, and in 1811 attorney-general of Lancaster. When Law left the northern circuit in 1802, to become attorney-general, Park obtained the lead of the circuit; and in London practice for many years Gibbs and Garrow were his only equals.

In public affairs he played a modest part. He joined his friend, William Stevens, treasurer of Queen Anne's bounty, in procuring the repeal of penal statutes against Scottish episcopalian clergy. He was one of the original members of ‘Nobody's Club,’ founded in honour of William Stevens [q. v.], and published a memoir of him on his death (privately printed, 1812; republished in 8vo, 1815). Personally a pious churchman, he published in 1804 ‘A Layman's earnest Exhortation to a frequent Reception of the Lord's Supper.’

At length, on 22 Jan. 1816, he was promoted to the bench of the common pleas, and was knighted. He sat in that court till his death, which took place at his house in Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, on 8 Dec. 1838. He was buried in the family vault at Elwick, Durham. As a judge, though not eminent, he was sound, fair, and sensible, a little irascible, but highly esteemed. Some stories of his bad temper are to be found in the memoir of him in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’ He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford on 10 June 1834. He married, 1 Jan. 1791, Lucy, daughter of Richard Atherton, a woollen-draper of Preston, one of the original partners in the Preston Old Bank, by whom he had two sons.

[Foss's Judges of England; Gent. Mag. 1839, i. 211; and see Lord Brougham in Edinb. Rev. April 1839.] 

PARK, JOHN (1804–1865), divine and poet, son of John Park, wine merchant, was born at Greenock on 14 Jan. 1804. He studied for the ministry at Aberdeen and at Glasgow University, where he formed a friendship with the son of the minister at Greenock, Alexander Scott, afterwards Edward Irving's assistant and principal of Owens College, Manchester. Licensed as a probationer in 1831, he was in turn assistant to Dr. Steele at West Church, Greenock, and to Dr. Grigor of Bonhill, Dumbartonshire. In 1832 he was ordained minister of Rodney Street Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, and in 1843 he became minister of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire. In 1854 he was transferred to the first charge of St. Andrews, and the St. Andrews University conferred on him the degree of D.D. He died suddenly from paralysis on 8 April 1865, and is buried in the grounds of the ruined cathedral.

Park was a man of versatile tastes and ability, and in Scotland he is widely known as a song writer and composer. One song, ‘O gin I were where Gadie rins,’ is the most popular of several versions written to the same chorus. Park gathered the tune from a country girl in Aberdeenshire. Other popular airs of his own composition are known as ‘Montgomery's Mistress’ and ‘The Miller's Daughter.’ Park played several musical instruments, and was also no mean artist. He published none of his songs in his lifetime. After his death his works were published under the title of ‘Songs composed and in part written by the late Rev. John Park,’ Leeds, 1876. This volume contains a portrait, and an introduction by Principal Shairp. It has twenty-seven songs of which both words and music are by Park, and thirty-seven settings by him of words from the great poets. A volume of ‘Lectures and Sermons’ appeared posthumously, Edinburgh, 1865. In 1842 Park visited Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, and a diary of the visit was privately printed by his nephew, Mr. Allan Park Paton, under the title of ‘A Greenockian's Visit to Wordsworth,’ Greenock, 1887. Mr. Paton contemplates publishing further selections from Park's manuscripts and journals, which include an account of a visit to Turner the artist.

[Introductory notice by Principal Shairp as above; Edwards's Modern Scottish Poets; Rogers's Scottish Minstrel; memorial tablet over Park's grave; Presbytery and Session Records; private information from Park's nephews, Rev. J. A. H. Paton of Duddingston, and Mr. Allan P. Paton of Greenock.] 

PARK, JOHN JAMES (1795–1833), jurist and antiquary, only son of the antiquary Thomas Park [q. v.], by his wife, a daughter of Admiral Hughes, was born in 1795. His health being delicate, he was educated at home, but, by desultory reading