He was the son of William Napier and Rosetta MacNaghten of Ballyreagh House, County Antrim, and was born in Belfast, Ireland, where his father was a prosperous brewer. He attended the Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin, before being called to the Irish Bar in 1831. He built up a very large practice, and acquired an impressive reputation for learning, especially in the area of pleading. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1844. He was MP for Dublin University from 1848 to 1858, after failing to be elected in 1847. He became Attorney General for Ireland from March to December 1852. He was also made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland 1852. He received a Doctorate of Civil Law in 1853. Napier was a staunch Tory in politics, and exceptionally diligent in attending to his political duties. He left the House of Commons when he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1858, an office he held until 1859. His appointment caused some surprise, since he had made his reputation in the courts of common law, although he also did some chancery work. He was created a Baronet in 1867 and appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1868, which entitled him to sit on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Despite his obvious wish to return to office, he never became Chancellor again: even in the Tory party his strong Evangelical views had made him enemies, while the Bar complained that his deafness made it impossible for him to conduct business efficiently. He accepted the position of Lord Justice of Appeal, but the reaction from the Bar was so unfavourable that he withdrew. His publications include educational, mathematical and legal works. In 1880 he retired to St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex and died there on 9 December 1882. He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin with a tablet to his memory placed in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
Reputation
He was remembered as a learned jurist and a diligent Parliamentarian, but above all as a devout Protestant with a deep devotion to the Church of Ireland, whose disestablishment he fiercely opposed. When young he was an extreme Evangelical, and strongly opposed to Catholic Emancipation, but it is said that his views mellowed as he grew older. His early views led to a clash with Daniel O'Connell, who nicknamed him "Holy Joe".
