Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote

Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote (13 September 1828 – 24 May 1902), known as Sir Julian Pauncefote between 1874 and 1899, was a British barrister, judge and diplomat. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1882 and 1889 when he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States and would be the last to use that title, as the office was upgraded to that of Ambassador to the United States in March 1893. Elevated to the peerage as Baron Pauncefote in 1899, he died in office in 1902.

Origins

Descended in the male line from the prominent Smith family of bankers, who established Smith's Bank in Nottingham in 1658, he was born in Munich, Bavaria, the son of Robert "Pauncefote" (born "Robert Smith") by his wife Emma Smith, a daughter of the painter John Raphael Smith (no apparent relation to the Smith bankers). His father (who in 1809 assumed the surname of "Pauncefote" in lieu of his patronymic) was the grandson of John Smith (born 1716), next younger brother of Sir George Smith, 1st Baronet (1714–1769) of Stoke Hall, East Stoke in Nottinghamshire (whose first wife Mary Howe was a co-heiress of the Pauncefote family of Preston, near Dymock, in Gloucestershire), and elder brother of Abel Smith II (1717–1788), ancestor of the Barons Carrington and the Barons Bicester.

Legal career

He was educated at Paris, Geneva, and Marlborough College. Intending to join the British Indian Army, he obtained a commission in the Madras Light Cavalry, but never took up his post, instead being called to the bar in 1852, after which he practiced as a conveyancing barrister. In July 1855, Pauncefote briefly became private secretary to Sir William Molesworth, Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time. His appointment lasted only a short period ending with Molesworth's death in October that same year.

In 1862, facing crippling financial losses, Pauncefote decided to go and practise as a barrister in Hong Kong.