Sir Anthony Hart ( 1754 – 1831) was a British lawyer, who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1827 to 1830.
Life
He was born into a slave-owning family about 1754 in the island of Saint Kitts, West Indies, fourth son of William Hart and Sarah Johnson. He said to have been educated at Tonbridge School and to have been a unitarian preacher at Norwich for a short time. He was admitted as a student of the Middle Temple in 1776 and was called to the bar in 1781.
He confined himself exclusively to equity work, and after practising twenty-six years at the outer bar was in 1807 appointed a king's counsel, and in the same year was elected a Bencher of his Inn. In 1816, he was made Solicitor-General to Queen Charlotte. Having been appointed vice-chancellor of the Court of Chancery in the place of Sir John Leach, he was appointed a privy Counsellor and knighted in 1827. He took his seat in the vice-chancellor's court in the following month.
Following the resignation of Lord Liverpool's ministry in March 1827 Lord Manners resigned as Irish Chancellor. His natural successor would have been Lord Plunket but George IV disapproved of Plunket's support for Catholic Emancipation. Instead, Manners remained in post whilst a successor was found. Eventually, in October 1827, to the surprise of the Irish Bar, Lord Goderich offered Hart the post of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
