\"1st Baron Redesdale\" John Freeman-Mitford Signed Album Page For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "1st Baron Redesdale" John Freeman-Mitford Signed Album Page. 

1793 and 1802, was an English lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1801 and 1802

and Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1802 and 1806. Born in

London, Mitford was the younger son of John Mitford (d. 1761) of Exbury,

Hampshire, and Philadelphia, daughter of Willey Reveley of Newton Underwood,

Northumberland. The historian William

Mitford was his elder brother. He was educated at Cheam School and

studied law at the Inner Temple from 1772, being called to

the bar in 1777.  Having become a barrister of the Inner Temple in

1777,[2] Mitford wrote A Treatise on the

Pleadings in Suits in the Court of

Chancery by English Bill, a work reprinted several times in

England and America. He was made a King's

Counsel in 1789. In 1788, he became Member of

Parliament for the borough of Bere Alston in Devon, and in 1791 he successfully

introduced a bill for the relief of Roman

Catholics, despite being himself a committed Anglican.

In 1793 he succeeded Sir John Scott as Solicitor-General for England (receiving the customary knighthood at

the same time), becoming Attorney General six years later, when he was returned to parliament as member

for East Looe in Cornwall. In 1794, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.In February 1801, Mitford was

chosen Speaker of the House of Commons and sworn of the Privy Council.[10] Exactly a year later, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland and raised to the peerage as

Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland. Being an

outspoken opponent of Catholic Emancipation, Redesdale was unpopular in Ireland. He

had little support from his own colleagues: he was the subject of scurrilous

attacks by "Juverna", who was later discovered to be a senior

judge, Robert Johnson, who was convicted of seditious

libel and forced to resign from the Bench as a result. In

February 1806, Redesdale was dismissed on the formation of the Ministry of All the Talents. Although Lord Redesdale declined

to return to official life, he was an active member of the House of

Lords on its political and its judicial sides. In 1813, he

secured the passing of acts for the relief of insolvent debtors, and became an

opponent of the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and other popular

measures of reform. Lord Redesdale married Lady Frances Perceval, daughter

of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, and sister of Prime

Minister Spencer Perceval, in 1803.He took the additional name of Freeman in 1809

by royal licence on succeeding to the estates of Thomas Edwards Freeman. Lady

Redesdale died in August 1817. Lord Redesdale survived her by thirteen years

and died at Batsford Park, near 1830, aged 81. He was succeeded in the barony by his only son, John, who was created Earl of Redesdale in 1877.