John Dawson Mayne | |
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Advocate-General of Madras Presidency | |
In office 1868–1872 |
|
Preceded by | John Bruce Norton |
Succeeded by | Sir H. S. Cunningham |
Personal details | |
Born |
Dublin |
31 October 1828
Died | 1917 (Aged 88) |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
Occupation | lawyer |
Profession | Advocate-General |
Religion | Anglican |
The Rt. Hon. John Dawson Mayne QC, PC (1828–1917) was a British lawyer and legal expert who served as acting Advocate-General of the Madras Presidency and a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. He is remembered as the author of Mayne's Hindu Law regarded as the most authoritative book on the Indian Penal Code. His married life was marred by a scandal, which prevented him from gaining a knighthood.
Born on 31 December 1828, to John Mayne (1793–1828), a Dublin lawyer who died before John Dawson was born. His mother, Anna (Graves) Johnson (1798–1864), had first married Edward Johnson (died 1818) J.P., of Ballymacash House, Co. Antrim. Mayne's middle name was for his great-grandfather's cousin and benefactor, Thomas Dawson, 1st Viscount Cremorne.
He came from a well-known family and was a grandson of Judge Edward Mayne and Dean Richard Graves. He was a nephew of Sir Richard Mayne and a first cousin of Admiral Richard Charles Mayne, Chief Justice Sir William Collis Meredith, Edmund Allen Meredith, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, Major-General Arthur Robert MacDonnell and Francis Brinkley. His sister married a son of Abraham Colles, and through her he was the uncle of Ladies Ashbourne and Bewley.