3-034-790 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. George Jessel, Q.C., M.P., the new Solicitor-General, 1871. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Merrick. 'The appointment of Sir Robert Collier to the judicial bench has occasioned the promotion of Sir John Duke Coleridge to be Attorney-General; and Mr. George Jessel, Q.C., M.P. for Dover, becomes Solicitor-General in his stead. This gentleman is a Jew by birth and by religious persuasion, and is the first of that community to attain high official honours in the legal profession...He was born in London, in the year 1824; was educated at University College, London, where he graduated B.A. in 1843, as a University scholar in mathematics, and proceeded M.A. in the following year, obtaining a gold medal in mathematics. He was called to the Bar, at Lincoln's Inn, in May, 1847, and was made a Queen's Counsel and a bencher of his inn in 1865. He is a senator of the University of London, and at the general election of 1868 he was returned, in the Liberal interest, as one of the representatives of the borough of Dover. Mr. Jessel married, in 1856, Amelia, eldest daughter of Mr. Joseph Moses, merchant, of London. In conformity with the usual practice, Mr. Jessel will shortly receive the honour of knighthood'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.