through attending debating societies and accompanying his father in his duties in court, decided to take to the law, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 3 May 1793. Having at first applied himself to Old Bailey practice and joined the home circuit, he distinguished himself on 24 Feb. 1794, during the absence of his leader, in defending an action for libel against a person named Eaton. He was chosen in consequence junior counsel for the defence in the state trials of Hardy, Horne Tooke, and Thelwall in the same year, and in 1796 defended Crossfield, who was charged with complicity in the ‘Popgun Plot.’ In 1798 he appeared for Arthur O'Connor and others on the charge of high treason, and summed up their defence. Being now leader of the Middlesex sessions, and having a good practice at Westminster Hall, he applied for a patent of precedence as a king's counsel, but it was refused him, nor did he obtain this honour until in 1816 it was won for him by his great skill in conducting the prosecution of Lord Cochrane and Cochrane Johnstone, accused of spreading false rumours for stockjobbing purposes. Against rivals so great as Scarlett and Copley he held the first place in the king's bench, and was also leader of the home circuit. In 1820 he conducted the prosecution of two of the Cato Street conspirators, and procured their conviction. On 13 Feb. 1832 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer and was knighted, and in January 1845 was compelled by failing health to retire. He died on the 1st of the following March at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Both in his private and public life he was much esteemed. He was a good criminal lawyer, though not deeply learned, and was an independent and acute, but severe and somewhat harsh judge. In his early years he was a dissenter, but latterly he attended the services of the church of England. He married Maria, daughter of William Hawes, M.D., by whom he had several children, including Russell Gurney [q. v.] and John Hampden Gurney [q. v.]
[Foss's Judges of England; State Trials, xxii. 22, 27, xxx. 711, 1341; Law Magazine, 1845, p. 278; Ballantine's Experiences, i. 262; Campbell's Life, i. 221; Annual Register, 1845.]
GURNEY, JOHN HAMPDEN (1802–1862), miscellaneous writer, eldest son of Sir John Gurney [q. v.], and brother of Russell Gurney [q. v.], was born at 12 Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, London, 15 Aug. 1802, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1824 and M.A. in 1827. He studied law for some time, but altering his intention was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1827, and appointed assistant curate of Lutterworth, Leicestershire; in October 1841 he also became chaplain of the poor law union at that place, where he remained for seventeen years. On 6 Dec. 1847 he was presented by the crown to the rectory of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square, London, and continued there till his death. On the death of the Rev. Thomas Bowdler, prebendary of St. Pancras in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 12 Nov. 1857, Gurney was instituted to the vacant stall. He was a most earnest and popular preacher, and published many of his sermons, as well as the lectures which he composed for the Young Men's Christian Association. He also paid considerable attention to psalmody. He died at his rectory house, 63 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London, 8 March 1862. He married at Edinburgh, 24 Oct. 1839, Mary, eldest daughter of the Rev. Henry Grey, minister of St. Mary's, Edinburgh, who had married his first cousin Margaretta, sister of John Grey of Dilston [q. v.] Gurney's third son, Edmund, is noticed separately.
He was the author of the following works:
- ‘A Collection of Hymns for Public Worship,’ 1838; 4th edition, 1850.
- ‘The Christian waking up in God's Likeness,’ two sermons on the death of F. W. Ware, 1840.
- ‘Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship selected for some of the churches in Marylebone,’ 1852; numerous editions.
- ‘Addresses to the Inhabitants of St. Mary's District, from the Rector,’ 1852, 1862, 2 vols.
- ‘The Lost Chief and the Mourning People. A Sermon on the Death of the Duke of Wellington,’ 1852.
- ‘Historical Sketches illustrating some important Events and Epochs from A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1546,’ 1852.
- ‘Church Psalmody. Hints for Improvement of a Collection of Hymns compiled by T. V. Fosbery,’ 1853.
- ‘The Grand Romish Fallacy, and Dangers and Duties of Protestants,’ 1854.
- ‘Grave Thoughts for the New Year,’ 1855.
- ‘St. Louis and Henry IV, a Second Series of Historical Sketches,’ 1855; another edition, 1861.
- ‘Better Times and Worse, or Hints for Improving the Church's hold on the People,’ 1856.
- ‘Sermons chiefly on Old Testament Histories,’ 1856.
- ‘The Moral of a Sad Story. Four Sermons on the Indian Mutiny,’ 1857.
- ‘Sermons on Texts from the Gospels and Epistles for particular Sundays,’ 1857.
- ‘God's Heroes and the World's Heroes. Third Series of Historical Sketches,’ 1858.
- ‘Sermons preached in St. Mary's Church, Marylebone,’ 1860.
- ‘The Lord Reigneth. A Sermon on the Death of the Prince Consort,’ 1862.
