ROMILLY, HUGH HASTINGS (1856–1892), explorer, third son of Colonel Frederick Romilly and Elizabeth, daughter of William Elliot, third earl of Minto, was born in London on 15 March 1856, and educated, first at the Rev. C. A. Johns's school at Winchester, and then at Repton. He entered Christ Church, Oxford, on 10 Oct. 1874, but took no degree, leaving to enter the business of Messrs. Melly & Co., merchants, of Liverpool.
Of adventurous disposition, he joined in Fiji in October 1879 Sir Arthur Gordon, the governor (afterwards Lord Stanmore). On 12 Nov. he accompanied his chief to Tonga, and in December to Rotumah, in connection with the annexation of that island. He arrived again in Fiji on 17 April 1880, and returned to Rotumah on 18 Sept. 1880 as deputy-commissioner on its annexation to the British crown. Early in 1881, owing to continued ill-health, he rejoined Sir Arthur Gordon, who had gone to New Zealand as governor, but in March he was appointed deputy-commissioner for the Western Pacific, and started for his first long tour through these seas in H.M.S. Beagle. He visited New Hanover, the Admiralty group, Hermit Islands, Astrolabe Bay in New Guinea, the Louisiade archipelago, Woodlark Islands, and the Trobriands. After a visit on sick leave to England, succeeded by a short stay in Fiji, he was ordered to New Guinea for the first time, at the end of 1883. In November 1884 he was one of the party which declared the British protectorate over part of New Guinea. By some misunderstanding he hoisted the British flag in advance of the formal declaration of protectorate. He gave effective aid in the early administration of the new colony, and on the death of the chief administrator, Sir Peter Scratchley, he acted as administrator in charge of the settlement from December 1885 to the end of February 1886, but went to London in June to supervise the New Guinea exhibits at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. For these services he was created a C.M.G. On 17 Jan. 1887 he once again started for the Pacific, staying en route in Egypt and Australia, and in June took up the appointment of deputy-commissioner and consul of the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, residing chiefly at Port Moresby, New Guinea. His task during 1888 and 1889 was peculiarly trying. There was a good deal of native hostility, and he was much isolated, owing largely, he believed, to the neglect of the home authorities. Finally, in 1890, he resigned his offices.
In 1891 Romilly went out to Africa in command of an expedition for the Northumberland Mining Syndicate, and travelled for some time in Mashonaland. While there he contracted fever, and, returning home, died at Cecil Street, Strand, London, on 27 July 1892. He was unmarried.
Romilly is described by Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Lord Stanmore) as of ‘a quick intelligence, great physical strength, and an easy temper.’ His writings prove that he possessed all the qualifications for an explorer of new lands and a student of native ways. A portrait forms the frontispiece of the memoir by his brother, Samuel H. Romilly.
Romilly published:
- ‘A true Story of the Western Pacific in 1879–80,’ London, 1882 (2nd edit. with portrait, 1893).
- ‘The Western Pacific and New Guinea,’ London, 1886.
- ‘From my Verandah in New Guinea,’ London, 1889.
[Letters and Memoir of Hugh Hastings Romilly, London, 1893; Mennell's Dict. of Australian Biogr.; official records; private information.]
ROMILLY, JOHN, first Lord Romilly (1802–1874), master of the rolls, second son of Sir Samuel Romilly [q. v.], by his wife Anne, daughter of Francis Garbett of Knill Court in Herefordshire, was born on 10 Jan. 1802. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a wrangler, and graduated B.A. in 1823, and M.A. in 1826. In 1827 he was called to the bar at Gray's Inn, of which society he had been admitted a member on 26 Jan. 1817, and of which for many years before his death he was a bencher. In 1832 he entered parliament in the liberal interest as member for Bridport, a seat which he held till 1835, when Horace Twiss, Q.C., defeated him by eight votes only. In 1846 he again contested the same borough, and on a scrutiny was declared entitled to the seat. At the general election of 1847 he was elected member for Devonport. Meantime he had prospered at the chancery bar, became a queen's counsel in 1843, was appointed solicitor-general by Lord John Russell in March 1848, was knighted, and was advanced to be attorney-general in July 1850 in the same administration. While law officer his principal achievement in parliament was carrying the Encumbered Estates Act through the House of Commons, but he also introduced and carried through bills for improving equitable procedure in Ireland, for making freehold land liable to the simple contract debts contracted by its late owner in his lifetime, and he obtained the appointment of a commission for
