Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Connell, John

by William Garden Blaikie

CONNELL, Sir JOHN (1765?–1831), lawyer, son of Arthur Connell, merchant in Glasgow, and lord provost of that city, was educated at the university there, and admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1788. He married a daughter of Sir Islay Campbell of Succoth, bart., lord president of the court of session. In 1795 he was appointed sheriff depute of Renfrewshire, and in 1805–6 he was chosen procurator, or law adviser, for the church of Scotland, and enjoyed an extensive practice in church causes. In 1816 he was appointed judge of the court of admiralty, and held this office till 1830, when that court was abolished. In 1822 he received the honour of knighthood on the occasion of the visit of George IV to Edinburgh. He died suddenly in April 1831 at Garscube, the seat of his brother-in-law, Sir Archibald Campbell. He was the author of two books:

1. ‘A Treatise on the Law of Scotland respecting Tithes and the Stipends of the Parochial Clergy,’ 3 vols. 1815, of which a second edition in two vols. appeared in 1830.
2. ‘A Treatise on the Law of Scotland respecting the erection, union, and disjunction of parishes, the manors and glebes of the parochial clergy, and the patronage of churches,’ 1818. To this a supplement was added in 1823.

[Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, vol. ii.; MS. Minutes of the Faculty of Advocates; private information.]

W. G. B.