Ambrose Hardinge Giffard

Sir Ambrose Hardinge Giffard was Chief Justice of British Ceylon.

Life

Ambrose Hardinge Giffard, known to his family as Hardinge, was born in Dublin in 1771, the eldest son of Sarah, daughter of William Morton, of Ballynaclash, County Wexford, and John Giffard, High Sheriff of Dublin in 1794, Accountant-General of Customs in Dublin, and a prominent loyalist. He was named after his father's guardian, Ambrose Harding, an attorney for James Annesley in the celebrated trial of 1743.
After studying for the law he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple, and was appointed Chief Justice of Ceylon in April 1819. Giffard's health failed, and he was granted leave of absence, but he died on 30 April 1827, while on the homeward voyage, in, East Indiaman. Before his death a knighthood was conferred upon Giffard, but the title was never gazetted.

Works

Giffard's leisure was devoted to literature, and a selection of poems was published in Ceylon about 1822. Some are reproduced in the Traditions and Recollections of Richard Polwhele.

Family

He married in 1808 Harriet, daughter of Lovell Pennell, esq., of Lyme Regis, and left five sons and five daughters. Admiral Sir George Giffard was his third son.