James Fitzjames Stephen
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Sir James Fitzjames Stephen Bt. |
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James Fitzjames Stephen, by Bassano, 1886.
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| Judge of the High Court | |
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In office 1879–1891 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
3 March 1829 Kensington, London |
| Died | 11 March 1894 (aged 65) Red House Park Nursing Home, Ipswich, Suffolk |
| Nationality | English |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Richenda Cunningham |
| Children | Katharine Stephen, Sir Herbert Stephen, James Kenneth Stephen, Sir Harry Lushington Stephen, Helen Stephen, Rosamond Stephen, Dorothea Stephen |
| Alma mater | Cambridge University |
| Occupation | Queen's Counsel, Legal member of the Council of India |
Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge and writer.
Born in Kensington, London, he was the son of James Stephen, the brother of the author and critic Sir Leslie Stephen, the uncle of Virginia Woolf, and a cousin of the jurist A.V. Dicey. He was educated at Eton College, and for two years at King's College London. In October 1847 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Although an outstanding student he did not win any prizes, mainly because he was uninterested in mathematics or classics, which formed the basis of the course. He was already acquainted with Sir Henry Maine, six years his senior, and then newly appointed to the Chair of Civil Law at Cambridge. Although their temperaments were very different, their acquaintance became a strong friendship, which ended only with Maine's death in 1888.
Stephen was introduced by Maine into the Cambridge society known as Cambridge Apostles, forming friendships with some of its members. The society contained a remarkable group of men who afterwards became eminent in different ways: for example, developer of classical electromagnetic theory James Clerk Maxwell and Liberal Party leader Sir William Harcourt.
Stephen chose a legal career, which was on balance a notable one: He was a member of the Viceregal Council and later Professor of Common Law at the Inns of Court. He was largely occupied with official work on codification, some of which were introduced as bills in the Westminster Parliament, though none of his codes ultimately became law in England. He was, however, responsible for the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. In 1879 he became a judge of the High Court.
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