Tenterden, CHARLES ABBOTT, BARON

Tenterden, CHARLES ABBOTT, BARON, was born a barber's son at Canterbury, 7th October 1762. A foundationer at King's School, Canterbury, of which he was captain at seventeen, he gained an exhibition which enabled him to proceed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Here he obtained a scholarship; in 1784 the chancellor's medal for Latin verse, in 1786 for an English essay; graduated in 1785, and soon after became fellow and tutor of his college. Entered at the Middle Temple, he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1796. He joined the Oxford circuit, and, in spite of a husky voice, a heavy face, and timid manners, his energy and knowledge soon brought a large practice. In 1801 he became recorder of Oxford, and next year published his clear and learned treatise on the Law relative to Merchant Ships and Seamen. It had the effect of increasing his employment in the more lucrative mercantile causes, so much that in 1807 he returned his income as upwards of £8000. In 1816 he accepted a puisne judgeship in the Court of Common Pleas; and in 1818 he was knighted, and chosen to succeed Lord Ellenborough as Chief-justice of the King's Bench. As a judge his most marked characteristic was his perspicacity and freedom from bias. He was raised to the peerage in 1827. In the House of Lords he strongly opposed the Catholic Relief Bill, and in his last speech he made a vow that if the Reform Bill, that 'appalling bill,' passed, he would never again take his seat as a peer. He fell ill at Bristol, while presiding at the trial of the mayor for misconduct during the Reform riots, and died suddenly, 4th November 1832.