The brothers Alexander Patrick Law and Patrick Francis Law were celebrated first-class cricketers in the 1850s and 1860s, while their brother Arthur Law was a celebrated actor and playwright throughout the later decades of the 19th century.
These three brothers were what we might today call sporting and stage ‘celebrities’ of the Victorian era, and they had strong Comerford family connections through their father, the Revd Patrick Comerford Law, and both were born in his Norfolk rectory. A fourth brother followed their father and two grandfathers into parish ministry.
The Revd Patrick Comerford Law (1797-1869) was born to Irish parents in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, on 21 August 1797. His father, the Revd Francis Law (1768-1807), was a curate of Newcastle, Co Wicklow (1790); Vicar of Attanagh, on the borders of Laois and Kilkenny (1801-1807), and Rector of Cork. He in turn was a son of Canon Robert Law (1730-1789), Rector of Saint Mary’s, Dublin (1772-1789), Rector of Middleton, Co Cork, and Treasurer of Cloyne.
Patrick Comerford Law’s mother, Belinda Isabella Comerford, was one of the two surviving daughters of Patrick Comerford, a Cork wine merchant who was also related to the Hennessy family of Cognac fame. Belinda Comerford’s sister was the poet and author Mary Teresa (Comerford) Boddington (1776-1840). Belinda Comerford and Francis Law were married on 3 November 1795.
Patrick Comerford Law was educated at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1818), and at first he practised at the Irish Bar. He was then ordained deacon in 1828, priest in 1829, and was an army chaplain in Birr, King’s County (Offaly), Rector of Samlesbury, Lancashire (1829), Rector of Northrepps (1830-1869) on the north coast of Norfolk, Rural Dean (1842), and chaplain to the Marquis of Cholmondeley.
His second cousin, Michael Law, was the father of Sir Edward Fitzgerald Law (1846-1908) of Athens, who was involved in reforming the Greek economy in the 1890s and in the negotiations leading to the eventual reunification of Crete with Greece state. He gave his name to a street in Athens and is buried in the First Cemetery, Athens.
Patrick Comerford Law married Frances Arbuthnot on 17 October 1828 in Saint George’s Church, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, where the Revd George Hamilton was the rector. She was a daughter of the Right Revd Alexander Arbuthnot, Bishop of Killaloe, and his wife Anne (Bingham). Frances Comerford Law was born at Clarisford House, the bishop’s palace in Killaloe, Co Clare. Frances died at Northrepps Rectory on 19 November 1857, Patrick Comerford Law died there on 15 April 1869.
They were the parents of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, including the cricketers Alexander and Patrick Law and the actor and playwright Arthur Law.
Alexander Patrick Law (1832-1895) was the eldest of four surviving sons of the Revd Patrick Comerford Law and his wife Frances. He was born on 14 January 1832 at his father’s rectory in Northrepps in Norfolk. He was educated at Rugby School, before going up at the age of 19 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in June 1851 as a commoner at New Inn Hall (BA, MA, 1860).
While he was an undergraduate at Oxford, Law made his debut in first-class cricket for the Gentlemen of England against the Gentlemen of Kent at Lord’s. Four years into his studies at Oxford, Law made his debut for Oxford University in first-class matches against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
He played first-class cricket three times in 1856 for the Gentlemen of England against various combined gentlemen teams. He appeared in two first-class matches for Oxford University in 1857, against the MCC and Cambridge University in the University Match, and also appeared for the Gentlemen of England against the Gentlemen of Kent and Sussex.
After graduating from Oxford, Law made several first-class appearances for the MCC, the Gentlemen of England and the Gentlemen of the North. He played a total of 19 first-class matches, scoring 488 runs at an average of 15.74 and a high score of 59. With his right-arm roundarm medium bowling, he took 19 wickets at a bowling average of 27.15, with best figures of 5 for 72.
Alexander Patrick Law later died at Kew on 30 October 1895.
His brother, Patrick Francis Law (1836-1909), was also a celebrated cricketer. Patrick was born at Northrepps Rectory on 28 August 1836, was also educated at and later worked as a clerk at the War Office.
Patrick played cricket for Rugby School (1854-1855), the Gentlemen of Norfolk (1855-1868), the Civil Service (1864), CL Bell’s Civil Service XI (1866), Marylebone Cricket Club (1866-1872), and the Gentlemen of Warwickshire (1871).
He married Julia Taylor Jones in Walsingham on 9 July 1868, when the wedding was conducted by his brother, the Revd Robert Arbuthnot Law.
A younger brother was the playwright, actor and scenic designer William Arthur Law (1844 -1913), better known as Arthur Law. He was born in their father’s Norfolk rectory on 22 March 1844 and was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
After eight years in the Royal Scots Fusiliers (1864-1872), Arthur Law went into acting, making his debut at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, in 1872. After two years touring the provinces, he came to London in 1874 and joined the German Reed Company. While performing with the Reeds he wrote comic theatre works that became part of the German Reed repertoire.
Law married the actress and popular concert singer Fanny Holland (1847-1931) at Saint Mary Abbott’s, Kensington, London, on 7 July 1877. They appeared together with the German Reeds at the Gallery of Illustration and Saint George’s Hall. She also appeared briefly at the Opera Comique as Josephine in HMS Pinafore in December 1879 and January 1880.
Law and Holland performed on tour as ‘Mr & Mrs Arthur Law’s Entertainment’ from 1879 to 1881, but their venture was not a success.
Some of Law’s plays for the German Reeds include A Night Surprise (1877), under the pseudonym, ‘West Cromer’, A Happy Bungalow (1877), with music by Charles King Hall; and Cherry Tree Farm (1881) and Nobody’s Fault (1882), both with music by Hamilton Clarke.
In 1881, he wrote Uncle Samuel, a curtain-raiser for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company played at the Opera Comique, with music by George Grossmith. It played along with Patience in 1881, and Law appeared in the role of John Bird. This was his only association with D’Oyly Carte.
Law later appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre as Mr Wranglebury in the Desprez & Faning companion piece Mock Turtles (1882), and as Major Murgatroyd in Patience (1882), filling in for Frank Thornton.
From then on, he devoted himself to writing for the stage. His first ‘serious’ drama, Hope, was produced at the Standard Theatre in London in 1882. That year he also wrote a musical farce, Mr Guffin’s Elopement, in collaboration with George Grossmith, for Toole’s Theatre, starring JL Toole. In 1885, Grossmith and Law wrote The Great Tay-Kin, produced at Toole’s.
Law went on to wrote dozens of other plays. His best-known include an adaptation of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab at the Princess’s Theatre (1888); The Judge at Terry’s Theatre (1890); The Magic Opal, an operetta with music by Isaac Albéniz at the Lyric Theatre and the Prince of Wales’s Theatre (1893); The New Boy at Terry’s and the Vaudeville Theatre (1894); The Sea Flower at the Comedy Theatre (1898), A Country Mouse at the Prince of Wales’s (1902); The Bride and Bridegroom at the New Theatre (1904); and Artful Miss Dearing at Terry’s (1909).
A few of Law’s plays were also produced on Broadway, including The New Boy at the Standard Theatre (1894) and A Country Mouse at the Savoy Theatre, New York (1902). He also created the scenic design for The Bachelor, by Clyde Fitch at the Maxine Elliott Theatre (1909).
Law lived for a time in Killaloe, his mother’s home town in Co Clare, and at Hill Cottage, Pulborough, Sussex. He died on 2 April 1913 in Parkstone in Poole, Dorset, at the age of 69; his wife Fanny Holland died on 18 June 1931 in Bournemouth, at the age of 83.
Their son, Hamilton Patrick John Holland Law (1879-1960), was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and was a professional musician who lived in Bournemouth. He married Frances Dora Brereton (1887-1973), only daughter of the Revd Cecil Brereton (1856-1939), Rector of Hardham, in Saint Mary’s Church, Pulborough, Sussex, on 9 October 1907, and they were the parents of three daughters.
The fourth surviving brother in this family was the Revd Robert Arbuthnot Law (1842-1889). He was born at Northrepps Rectory on 28 February 1842 and was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was the curate of All Saints’ Church, Hertford (1866-1869), Rector of Larling, Norfolk (1870-1875), and of Gunthorpe with Bale, Norfolk (1875-1889).
He married Agnes Sparke (1834-1882), only daughter of Canon John Henry Sparke of Gunthorpe Hall and granddaughter of Sir Jacob Henry Astley. They were married at All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, London, on 20 January 1870 with her uncle, Canon Edward Bowyer Sparke, officiating.
Robert Law died at Gunnersbury Lodge, Acton, Middlesex, 11 December 1889 and was buried at Gunthorpe; Agnes died at Burgh Hall, Melton Constable, Norfolk, on 18 June 1892. They were the parents of three sons: Arbuthnot Patrick Astley Law (1872-1938), Hubert Henry Bingham Law (1873-1936), and Alexander Delaval Hamilton Law (1874-1938.
