Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hogg, James Macnaghten McGarel
HOGG, Sir JAMES MACNAGHTEN McGAREL, first Lord Magheramorne (1823–1890), eldest son of Sir James Weir Hogg [q. v.], was born at Calcutta 3 May 1823. He was educated at Eton. In May 1842 he matriculated at Christ Church, but left Oxford in 1843 to join the 1st life-guards, of which he became major and lieutenant-colonel in 1855; he retired from the army in 1859. In politics Hogg was a conservative, and sat as member for Bath from 1865 to 1868, and for Truro from 1871 to 1885. In 1885 and 1886 he was returned for the Hornsey division of Middlesex. In 1876 he succeeded his father as second baronet, and assumed, by royal license dated 8 Feb. 1887, the additional surname of McGarel on succeeding to the estates of Charles McGarel of Magheramorne, co. Antrim; in 1887 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Magheramorne.
Hogg was widely known from his connection with the metropolitan board of works, of which he became a member in 1867, and was chairman from 1870 until its abolition in 1889, when its place was taken by the London county council. Throughout this period Hogg was actively engaged in promoting schemes for the improvement of the metropolis, and personally identified himself with the construction of the Thames Embankment, Shaftesbury Avenue, and Charing Cross Road. In 1874, on the completion of the Chelsea Embankment, he was made a K.C.B. In 1887 some London ratepayers alleged that various members and officers of the board of works had fraudulently turned their official position to their own pecuniary advantage, chiefly in connection with the letting of building-sites in the new streets constructed by the board in central London. A royal commission was appointed in 1888 to inquire into the allegations, which affected almost the whole administration of the board. Hogg gave the commissioners every assistance and tendered valuable evidence. The report of the commissioners, which was issued in 1889, entirely absolved him and the majority of his colleagues of all blame beyond that of placing too much reliance on their subordinates. Magheramorne died on 27 June 1890.
He married, 31 Aug. 1857, Caroline Elizabeth Emma Douglas-Pennant, eldest daughter of Lord Penrhyn, and by her had five sons and one daughter.
[Burke's and Foster's Peerages; interim and final Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, 1888 and 1889; Times, 28 June 1890; Men of the Time, 12th ed., p. 537.]