Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Young, John (1807-1876)
YOUNG, Sir JOHN, second baronet, Baron Lisgar (1807–1876), born at Bombay on 31 Aug. 1807, was the eldest son of Sir William Young, first baronet (d. 10 March 1848), by his wife Lucy (d. 8 Aug. 1856), youngest daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Frederick. He was educated at Eton, and matriculated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 13 June 1825, graduating B.A. in 1829. On 26 Jan. 1829 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, and in 1834 he was called to the bar. On 19 May 1831 he was returned to parliament in the tory interest for the county of Cavan, and retained his seat until 1855. His political views were moderate, and he gave a general support to Sir Robert Peel. When Peel took office in 1841 Young was appointed a lord of the treasury on 16 Sept., and on 21 May 1844 he became one of the secretaries of the treasury. On the overthrow of Peel's ministry he resigned office on 7 July 1846. Under Lord Aberdeen he became chief secretary for Ireland on 28 Dec. 1852, and was nominated a privy councillor. On 20 March 1855 he resigned the Irish secretaryship on being appointed lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and on 25 March was gazetted G.C.M.G. He commenced his duties on 13 April 1855, and found himself immediately at variance with the representative assembly, which his predecessor, Sir Henry George Ward [q. v.], had also found difficult to conciliate. Young was not in sympathy with the desire of the majority of the inhabitants for union with Greece; and in a despatch to the colonial secretary, Henry Labouchere (afterwards Baron Taunton) [q. v.], dated 10 June 1858, he recommended that Corfu and Paxo should be converted into English colonies, with the consent of their inhabitants. The despatch was stolen from the colonial office and published in the ‘Daily News’ towards the close of 1858. This misfortune rendered Young's position impossible, and in the same year Gladstone, who had been sent out as high commissioner extraordinary, recommended Young's recall. He gave strong testimony, however, to the mild and conciliatory nature of Young's administration, and recommended that he should be employed elsewhere. Young left Corfu on 25 Jan. 1859, and on 4 Feb. was nominated K.C.B.
On 22 March 1861 he was appointed governor-general and commander-in-chief of New South Wales, in succession to Sir William Thomas Denison [q. v.] Immediately after his arrival he was persuaded by the premier, (Sir) Charles Cowper [q. v.], to endeavour, by nominating fifteen new members, to compel the upper house of New South Wales to pass a measure regulating the allotment of crown lands. Denison, before his departure, had refused to accede to this expedient, and the colonial secretary, Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, fifth duke of Newcastle [q. v.], on hearing of the incident signified to Young their disapprobation. Soon after the expiration of his term of office, on 24 Dec. 1867, he returned to England, and was created G.C.B. on 13 Nov. 1868.
Young determined on his return to enter active political life. Inclining to liberalism, he consulted Gladstone as to a constituency, but found himself in disagreement with the liberal leader on the question of the ballot. In 1868 the conservative ministry offered him the governorship of Canada, which several men of their party, including Lord Mayo, had declined, because the Canadian parliament had impaired the dignity of the office by reducing the governor's salary. Young accepted the post, and on 2 Jan. 1869 he was appointed governor-general of Canada and governor of Prince Edward's Island, which was not annexed to the Dominion until 1873. He reached Canada towards the end of November, and found the rebellion of Louis Riel [q. v.] in progress on his arrival. It was not suppressed until September 1870, when Riel fled into the United States. On 26 Oct. Young was created Baron Lisgar of Lisgar and Baillieborough, co. Cavan. Resigning his post in June 1872, he returned to Ireland, leaving behind him in Canada a reputation for ability and sound judgment. He died at Lisgar House, Baillieborough, on 6 Oct. 1876. On 5 April 1835 he married Adelaide Annabella, daughter of Edward Tuite Dalton by his wife Olivia, afterwards Marchioness of Headfort. Lady Lisgar married, secondly, Sir Francis Charles Fortescue Turville of Bosworth Hall, Leicestershire. Lisgar left no issue, and on his death the barony became extinct, while the baronetcy descended to his nephew, William Need Muston Young. Young's portrait was engraved by George E. Perine for the ‘Eclectic Magazine’ in 1872 (New York, xv. 129).
[Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, s.v. ‘Young of Baillieborough;’ Boase's Modern Biogr. s.v. ‘Lisgar;’ Ward's Men of the Reign, 1885, s.v. ‘Lisgar;’ Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, s.v. ‘Young;’ Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Records of Lincoln's Inn, 1896, ii. 131; Four Years in the Ionian Islands, 1864, i. 208–29; Dunn's Ionian Islands in relation to Greece, 1859; Rusden's Hist. of Australia, 1883, iii. 259–64; Lang's Hist. of New South Wales, 1875, i. 409–20; Parkes's Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, 1892; Dent's Last Forty Years, 1881, ii. 487–8, 518; Pope's Memoirs of Sir J. A. Macdonald, 1894, vol. ii.; Dent's Canadian Portrait Gallery, 1881, iv. 40–1.]