John Farley Leith

John Farley Leith, QC (5 May 1808 – 4 April 1887)^[1] was a British lawyer and Liberal politician.

John Farley Leith QC MP
1879 caricature of John Farley Leith in Vanity Fair
Member of Parliament for Aberdeen
In office 29 June 1872 – 3 April 1880
Preceded by	William Henry Sykes
Succeeded by	John Webster
Personal details
Born	5 May 1808
Died	4 April 1887 (aged 78)
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Education	University of Aberdeen

Life

He was the eldest son of James Urquhart Murray Leith, of Barrach, Aberdeenshire, killed in 1814 at the Battle of Orthez with the 68th Regiment. He was educated at Marischal College and Aberdeen University. He studied law at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1830.^[2][3]

Leith practised as a barrister in the Calcutta High Court from 1832 to 1846 and was then Professor of Law at the East India Company's Haileybury College from 1853 to 1857. He was made QC in 1872 and a bencher in 1874.^[4]

He was elected MP for Aberdeen at a by-election in 1872 but stood down at the 1880 general election.^[5]

Leith died in 1887.^[2]

Family

In 1832 Leith married Alicia Anne, the daughter of Samuel Tomkins (the elder) of London, a banker, with whom he had issue.^[2][3] Their daughter Mary Anne married Sir William Miller, 1st Baronet.^[6] Their sons included Edward Tyrrell Leith, law professor at the University of Bombay, and the barrister William Gordon Ernest Leith.^[7]

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)
2.  Foster, Joseph (1885). "Leith, John Farley" . Men-at-the-Bar  (second ed.). London: Hazell, Watson, and Viney.
3. Oliver & Boyd's new Edinburgh almanac and national repository. Oliver & Boyd. 1874. p. 573.
4. Dictionary of Indian Biography. p. 249.
5. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
6. "Miller, Sir John Alexander". Who's Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 4 December 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. The Law Times. Office of The Law Times. 1886. p. 480.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Leith

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Henry Sykes	Member of Parliament for Aberdeen 1872 – 1880	Succeeded by John Webster