Identity:

Sir James Macnaghten McGarel Hogg, first Baron Magheramorne, was the eldest son of Sir James Weir Hogg. He had four surviving brothers, Stuart Saunders (b. 1833), Frederick Russell (b. 1836), Stapleton Cotton (b. 1839) and Quintin (b. 1845), and four sisters, Isabella, Mary Rosina, Annie Claudina and Florence. On 31 August 1857 he married Caroline Elizabeth Emma Douglas-Pennant, the eldest daughter of first Baron Penrhyn. They had five sons, James Douglas (b. 1861), Dudley Stuart (b. 1863), Ronald Tracy (b. 1865), Archibald Campbell (b. 1866), Gerald Francis (b. 1868), and one daughter, Edith Mary.

Life:

Hogg was educated at Eton and Christ Church, but he left the latter in 1843 after only a year in order to join the First Lifeguards, of which he became Major and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1855. However, he retired from the army in 1859. He sat as a Conservative M.P. for Bath from 1865 to 1868, for Truro from 1871 to 1885, and for Hornsey, Middlesex from 1885 to 1886. In 1876 he succeeded his father as second baronet. On 8 Feb. 1887 he was given royal licence to add McGarel to his name, following his succession to the estates of Charles McGarel of Magheramorne, Co. Antrim. In 1887 he became the first Baron Magheramorne.

Hogg became a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1867, and was Chairman from 1870 until it was replaced by the London County Council in 1889. In 1874, on the completion of the Chelsea Embankment, he was made a K.C.B. In 1877-1878 he was in correspondence with JW concerning the external decoration of the White House, Tite Street, designed for the artist by E. W. Godwin. The Board withheld the lease until additional decorative details were added. In 1887 some members and officers of the board of works were accused of fraud, but, following a royal commission in 1888-1889, Hogg was absolved of all blame.

Bibliography:

Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, London, 1896; Dictionary of National Biography Online, Oxford, 1997.