George Hayes

Who was George Hayes?

Sir George Hayes was an English judge, a justice of the Queen's Bench.

Hayes, second son of Sheedy Hayes, a West Indian proprietor, by Catherine, daughter of John Westgate, was born in Judd Place, Somers Town, London, on 19 June 1805, and educated at Highgate School and at St. Edmund's Roman catholic college, near Ware. At an early age he renounced the Roman Catholic religion, and became a member of the Church of England.

He was articled to William Francis Patterson, a solicitor at Leamington, and after completing his articles, in November 1824 entered the Middle Temple as a student, and in due course commenced practice as a special pleader. On 29 Jan. 1830 he was called to the bar, joined the midland circuit, and regularly attended the Warwickshire sessions, soon rising into extensive practice as a junior both at sessions and on the circuit. In sessions' appeal cases, a very lucrative part of practice, he was peculiarly successful and very largely employed. In 1856 he was made serjeant-at-law, and on 22 Feb. 1861 obtained a patent of precedence to rank next after Archibald John Stephens, Q.C.