Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nolan, Michael
NOLAN, MICHAEL (d. 1827), legal author, born in Ireland, was admitted an attorney of the court of exchequer in that country about 1787, and was called to the English bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1792. In 1793 he published ‘Reports of Cases relative to the Duty and Office of a Justice of Peace from 1791 to 1793,’ London, 8vo. He practised as a special pleader on the home circuit and at the Surrey sessions, gained great experience of the details of the poor law, and some celebrity in the legal world as the author of ‘A Treatise of the Laws for the Relief and Settlement of the Poor,’ London, 1805, 2 vols. 8vo; 4th edit. in 1825, 3 vols. 8vo. As member for Barnstaple in the parliament of 1820–6 he introduced the Poor Law Reform Bills of 1822–3–4. He retired from parliament in March 1824 on being appointed justice of the counties of Brecon, Glamorgan, and Radnor. He died in 1827.
Nolan edited the ‘Reports’ of Sir John Strange [q. v.], London, 1795, 2 vols. 8vo, and was one of the joint editors of the ‘Supplement’ to Viner's ‘Abridgment,’ London, 1799–1806, 6 vols. 8vo. Besides the work on the poor laws he published: ‘A Syllabus of Lectures intended to be delivered in Pursuance of an Order of the Hon. Soc. of Lincoln's Inn in their Hall,’ London, 1796, 8vo, and a ‘Speech … delivered in the House of Commons, Wednesday, July 10, 1822, on moving for leave to bring in a Bill to alter and amend the Laws for the Relief of the Poor,’ London, 1822, 8vo.
[Wilson's Dublin Registry, 1788, p. 113; Rose's Biogr. Dict.; Webb's Compend, Irish Biog.; Marvin's Legal Bibliogr.; Hansard, new ser. vols. vii. x.]