Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Macpherson, John Molesworth
MACPHERSON, Sir JOHN MOLESWORTH (1853–1914), Anglo-Indian legislative draftsman, was born in Calcutta 8 August 1853. He was the elder son of John Macpherson, M.D. [q.v.], of the East India Company's medical service, and nephew of Samuel Charters Macpherson [q.v.], of the Madras army, and of William Macpherson [q.v.] of the Calcutta bar. His mother was Charlotte Melusina, fifth daughter of the Rev. John Molesworth Staples, rector of Lissan and Upper Moville, co. Tyrone. Educated at Westminster School, Macpherson was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1876 and enrolled as an advocate of the Calcutta high court in the same year. His career at the bar, however, was brief; for in the following year he was appointed deputy secretary to the government of India in the legislative department. After officiating on several occasions as secretary, in 1896 he was promoted permanently to that post, which he held till his retirement in 1911. He received the C.S.I. in 1897 and was knighted in 1911. After his retirement he was employed by the secretary of state for India upon a measure to amend and consolidate the conflicting and piecemeal legislation of parliament with regard to India; and on this he was engaged at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly at Streatham, 5 January 1914. The measure was finally cast into shape by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, and became the Government of India Act (1915).
Macpherson's career was of a type more common at Whitehall than in India, the whole of his active life being spent in a single office. A legal draftsman's position is necessarily one of continuous self-effacement; and it is therefore difficult to estimate his exact share in the Indian legislation of his time. Its most notable monuments, such as the Transfer of Property Act (1882) and the Civil Procedure Codes (1882 and 1908), were considered in detail by specially appointed committees composed of the highest legal talent available; and such work as Macpherson may have done on them can hardly have been more than routine. Indeed, he lacked the experience of litigation necessary for more than routine work. On the other hand, as he was never the responsible head of the legislative department, he cannot fairly be charged with its conspicuous failures, which were due to a policy of excessive simplification.
Macpherson's reputation was that of a thorough and painstaking official with an intimate knowledge of all the details of his office. To this knowledge and experience the rules of procedure for the enlarged Morley-Minto councils (1910) owe much of their success. He was also a valued critic and adviser on the technique of provincial legislation, when it came before the government of India in the ordinary course for approval before enactment. It is, however, with the legislative activities of the foreign department that his name will be longest associated; for the official Lists of British Enactments in Force in Native States in India (6 vols., 1888–1895) was originally compiled under his guidance, and, though subsequently re-edited, is still familiarly known as ‘Macpherson’.
In private life Macpherson was a man of deep piety and a staunch adherent of the Presbyterian Church. He was happy in his home life and in a gift for making and retaining a very wide circle of friends. He married in 1880 Edith Christina (died 1913), daughter of General Charles Waterloo Hutchinson, C.B., Royal Engineers, inspector-general of military works in India. They had three sons and one daughter.
[The Times, 6 January 1914; private information.]