Queer Places:
Park House, Park Ln, Maidstone ME14 2NA, UK
Rugby School, Lawrence Sheriff St, Rugby CV22 5EH, UK
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
St Mary the Virgin and All Saints Churchyard
Boxley, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England
Sir Franklin
Lushington (January 4, 1823 - November 10, 1901) was the Chief Magistrate of London.
Edward Lear's most fervent
and painful friendship was with Franklin Lushington. He met the young
barrister in Malta in 1849 and then toured southern Greece with him. Lear
developed an infatuation for him that Lushington did not wholly reciprocate.
Although they remained friends for almost forty years, until Lear's death, the
disparity of their feelings constantly tormented Lear. Indeed, Lear's attempts
at male companionship were not always successful; the very intensity of Lear's
affections may have doomed these relationships. Edward Lear’s papers seem to
have been selectively destroyed after his death by the man for whom Lear had
harboured a ‘thwarted, frustrated, impossible love’.
Franklin Lushington was born 4 January 1823 in Kensington, London, the son of Edmund Henry Lushington, a Barrister-at- Law and a Bencher of the Inner Temple,
of Park House, Maidstone, and
his second wife, Sophia Philips, daughter of Thomas Philips of Sedgley. He was
the brother of Edmund Law
Lushington and Henry Lushington. He was educated at Rugby and had a hand in the development of the game.
He entered Trinity College in 1843. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1846 and his Masters in 1849. He was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in 1849.
A member of the
Cambridge Apostles at
Cambridge, he became a barrister - judge of the Supreme Court of the Ionian
Islands and member of the Council.
Franklin Lushington married Kate Maria Morgan, daughter of Reverend James Morgan of Corston, Somerset, on 21 Jan 1862 in Boxley, Kent. Franklin was Called to the Bar on 26 January 1853. He served as member of the Supreme Council of Justice, Ionian Islands, 1855-8.
In 1855, he was appointed judge to the Supreme Court of Justice in the Ionian Islands, and the artist, illustrator and poet, Edward Lear, went with him to live in Corfu. They had met in Malta in 1849, where Franklin’s elder brother Henry was Chief Secretary to the government. On his death in 1888, Edward Lear left all his papers to Lushington, and named him his literary executor.
Franklin held the position of Metropolitan Police Magistrate at Thames Court,
1869-90. He was the Metropolitan Police Magistrate at Bow Street 1890-1899 and was Chief Magistrate from 1899 until his death in 1901. Queen Victoria confered the honor of Knighthood in 1989 on his appointment to Chief Magistrate of the Metropolitan Police Courts.
Lushington died on 10 November 1901 at the age of 78. He was buried on 15 November 1901 at St Mary the Virgin and All Saints Churchyard
Boxley, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England.
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