land in December 1842. In 1850 he was appointed by the governor-general and the council of Canada arbitrator on behalf of that province for the purpose of determining the boundaries between Canada and New Brunswick. On 29 July 1851 he was nominated colonial secretary of Western Australia, but resigning this appointment, he was appointed by Lord-chancellor Truro judge of the county courts of Glamorganshire and Breconshire and of the district of Rhayader on 22 Dec. 1851. After sitting on the bench for thirty years he retired in December 1881, and died at Bath on 28 Aug. 1882, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Falconer was a laborious worker, a staunch liberal, and an energetic opponent of abuses. He was a member of several learned societies, and was a traveller of much experience. He contributed some articles to the ‘Westminster Review’ and the ‘Colonial Magazine,’ was the author of several books, and of a very large number of pamphlets.
The following is a list of his more important works:
- ‘The History, Opinions, and Present Legal Position of the English Presbyterians,’ published under the direction of the English Presbyterian Association (anon.), London, 1834, 8vo. Some passages of this work were written by other hands.
- ‘Cases of Controverted Elections, determined in Committees of the House of Commons, in the Second Parliament of the Reign of Queen Victoria,’ by Thomas Falconer and Edward H. Fitzherbert, London, 1839, 8vo.
- ‘On the Discovery of the Mississippi, and on the South-Western Oregon and North-Western Boundary of the United States, with a translation from the original manuscript of Memoirs, &c., relating to the discovery of the Mississippi,’ by Robert Cavelier de la Salle and the Chevalier Henry de Tonty, London, 1844, 12mo.
- ‘The Oregon Question,’ London, 1845, 8vo; another edition, New York, 1845; second edition, London, 1845, 8vo.
- ‘On Probate Courts,’ London, 1850, 8vo.
- ‘On Surnames and the Rules of Law affecting their Change,’ Cardiff, 1862, 12mo, privately printed; second edition, with additions, London, 1862, 8vo.
- ‘Supplement to an Essay on Surnames, and the Rules of Law affecting their Change, with Comments on the Speeches delivered in the House of Commons by Sir G. Grey, Bart., and the Solicitor-General,’ London, 1863, 8vo.
- ‘List of County Court Judges;’ ‘Note on the Abolition of certain Franchise Gaols,’ London, 1865, 8vo, privately printed.
- ‘On County Courts, Local Courts of Record, and on the Changes proposed to be made in such Courts in the Second Report of the Judicature Commissioners,’ London, 1873, 8vo.
[Falconer's List of County Court Judges, p. 8; Falconer's Bibliography of the Writings of the Falconer Family, pp. 20–30; Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1881, p. 391; Wilkins's History of Merthyr Tydfil (1867), pp. 353–7; Law Times, lxxiii. 315–16; Merthyr Express, 2 Sept. 1882, p. 6; Illustrated London News, 16 Sept. 1882, where a portrait of Falconer will be found; Lincoln's Inn Registers; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
FALCONER, WILLIAM (1732–1769), poet, was born 11 Feb. 1732 (Carruthers). His father was a poor barber in Edinburgh. A brother and sister were deaf and dumb; the sister was living in the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh in 1801. Falconer appears to have had an early taste for literature, which was checked by a ‘freezing blast of adversity’ (see description of ‘Arion’ in Shipwreck, canto 1). He joined a merchant ship at Leith. He was afterwards servant, according to Currie (Burns, 1801, ii. 283), to Archibald Campbell (fl. 1767) [q. v.], then purser on a man-of-war, who discovered and encouraged his literary tastes. He became second mate to a ship in the Levant trade, which was wrecked on a voyage from Alexandria to Venice, when only three of the crew were saved. In 1751 he published a poem on the death of Frederick, prince of Wales—which is about as good as the subject requires. He contributed a few poems to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and Clarke guesses, on very slight grounds, that he wrote the popular song ‘Cease, rude Boreas!’ generally attributed to George Alexander Stevens [q. v.] In 1762 he published his chief poem, the ‘Shipwreck,’ founded on his own experience and dedicated to the Duke of York, then rear-admiral. The duke advised him to enter the royal navy, where there would be opportunities for patronage. He was rated as a midshipman on Sir E. Hawke's ship the Royal George. When the duke sailed with Sir Charles Hardy in November 1762, Falconer celebrated the auspicious event in an ode, according to his friend Hunter, ‘composed in a small space between the cable tiers and the ship's side.’ The duke is elaborately compared to ‘Alcmena's warlike son,’ tearing himself from pleasure to seek virtue. The Royal George was paid off on the peace of 1763, and Falconer became purser of the Glory frigate. He soon afterwards married Miss Hicks, daughter of the surgeon of Sheerness yard. The Glory was laid up in ordinary at Chatham, and Commissioner Hanway, brother of Jonas, had the captain's cabin fitted up as a study for the literary purser. Here, in 1764, he wrote the
