Romilly, SIR SAMUEL, English lawyer and law reformer, was born son of a watchmaker of Huguenot descent, at London, March 1, 1757. At sixteen he was articulated to one of the Chancery clerks, at twenty-one entered himself at Gray's Inn, and afterwards went the Midland Circuit, but found his chief employment in Chancery practice. In 1784 he made the acquaintance of Mirabeau, who introduced him to Lord Lansdowne; in 1790 he published an able pamphlet on the French Revolution. In 1806 he was, at the instance of Mr Fox, appointed Solicitor-general in the Grenville administration, and was compelled to accept the honour of knighthood. He took his seat for Queenborough, as in later parliaments for Horsham, Wareham, and
Arundel. He now devoted himself, by pamphlet and parliamentary agitation, to ameliorate the severity of the criminal law, which at that time inflicted Capital Punishment (q.v.) on over 200 different offences. His bills were session after session rejected, but Romilly nevertheless persevered, and, if he saw little fruit of his labours in his lifetime, made his name famous over Europe. He took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation, and in opposing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the spy system, and the despotic acts of the government. In July 1818 he was spontaneously chosen by the electors of Westminster as their representative. His wife died on the 29th October of that same year, and the shock so preyed upon his mind that three days after (November 2, 1818) he put an end to his life. See his Speeches in Parliament (2 vols. 1820), and his Autobiography (3 vols. 1840).—His second son, JOHN, BARON ROMILLY, born in 1802, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1827. He was made Solicitor-general in 1848, Attorney-general in 1850, Master of the Rolls in 1851, and created a Baron in 1866. As Master of the Rolls Romilly incidentally rendered great services to his country, by superintending the publication of public records tending to throw much light upon English history and events. He died on December 23, 1874.