Alderman Sir Daniel Lambert; besides several of the counsel

and jurymen.

The following lines, taken from a copy of verses published soon after the mournful event, afford some evidence of the estimation in which Sir Thomas's character was regarded:

"Yes, 'tis a glorious thought! The worthy mind,
Matur'd by wisdom, and from vice refin'd,
In various scenes of social life approv'd,
Of men the lover, and by men belov'd,
Must, sure, divested of its kindred clay,
Soar to the regions of empyreal day.

"Such Abney shone; to deck whose mournful hearse,
The Muse lamenting pays her grateful verse,
The Muse long wont to love, as to revere,
The judge impartial, and the friend sincere!
How has she oft with fix'd attention hung

On the great truths that grac'd his flowing tongue!
Truths, that he joy'd with candid warmth to draw
Fair from the moral, as the Christian law.
How oft beheld him glad the friendly scene,
Without all cheerful, and all calm within;
And, far from mad ambition's noisy strife,
Taste the pure blessings of domestic life!
How oft in him, with pleasing wonder, view'd
A soul, where lawless passions sank subdued,
Where virtue still her rightful rule maintain'd,
While generous zeal, by bigotry unstain'd,

And freedom, that protects with watchful care
Man's sacred rights, serenely triumph'd there!"

Though this may seem the effusion of personal affection, the truth of the delineation is confirmed by the more dispassionate testimony of that eminent judge, Sir Michael Foster, who in his report of the Trial of the Rebels (p. 75), after designating Sir Thomas Abney as "a very worthy man, learned in his profession, and of great integrity," proceeds thus:" He was through an openness of temper, or a pride of virtue habitual to him, incapable of recommending himself to that kind of low assiduous craft, by which we

. . .

have known some unworthy men make their way to the favour of the great. In his judicial capacity he constantly paid a religious regard to the merits of the question in the light the case appeared to him; and his judgment very seldom misled him. In short when he died, the world lost a very valuable man, his majesty an excellent subject, and the public a faithful able servant."

He married Frances, daughter of Joshua Burton of Brackley in Northamptonshire, and by her he left a son, Thomas, whose only daughter married General Sir Charles Hastings, Bart. Their descendants have assumed the name of Abney, in addition to their own, and possess Willesley Hall, the judge's seat. Another branch of the Abney family is seated at Measham Hall in the same county.'

ADAMS, RICHARD.

B. E. 1753.

See under the Reign of George III.

ALAND, JOHN FORTESCUE, afterwards LORD FORTESCUE. JUST. K. B. 1727. JUST. C. P. 1729.

See under the Reign of George I.

HUGH FORTESCUE, the grandfather of this judge, was the seventh in lineal descent from the illustrious chief justice of Henry VI. His second son, Arthur, was the grandfather of the first Lord Fortescue of Castle Hill, to which the earldom now enjoyed by his successors was added in 1789. Hugh's third son, Edmond, by his marriage with Sarah, daughter of Henry Aland, Esq., of Waterford, whose name he added to his own, was the judge's father.

John Fortescue-Aland was born on March 7, 1670. Oxford has been supposed to be the place of his education, as he received from that university the honorary degree of

Gent. Mag. at the respective dates; Burke's Landed Gentry.

doctor of civil law on May 4, 1733. But the language of that diploma leads to a different conclusion, and no trace is to be found of him in the register of matriculations.' In 1688 he became a member of the Middle Temple, but afterwards removed to the Inner Temple; and having been called to the bar in 1712, arrived at the post of reader in 1716. In October 1714, immediately after the arrival of George I., he was appointed solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.), from which he was promoted in December of the following year to be solicitor-general to the king.' He was chosen member for Midhurst in the first parliament of George I., but only sat during its first session, being raised to the bench before the commencement of the next. This event occurred on January 24, 1717, when he was sworn a baron of the Exchequer and knighted; having but two days before assisted at the trial of Francis Francia for high treason. He occupied that seat for little more than a year; and one of his last duties as a baron was to give his opinion respecting the education and marriage of the royal family, his argument on which is fully reported by himself, and, though he had been one of the law officers of the Prince of Wales, was decidedly in favour of the prerogative of the crown. Soon after, on May 15, 1718, he was removed to the King's Bench on the elevation of Chief Justice Sir John Pratt. In that court he sat till the death of George I. on June 11, 1727; but George II. about the middle of September, perhaps on account of the above opinion against his claim, superseded him.3

Sir John's retirement having lasted fifteen months, he was restored to favour, and on the death of Mr. Justice Cowper

'Chalmers' Biog. Dict.; Professor Stanley (now Dean of Westminster) kindly furnished me with the only passages in the diploma which have any relation to the University.

2 Lord Raymond, 1318; Strange, 1.

3 State Trials, xv. 975, xvi. 1206; Strange, 86; Lord Raymond, 1510.

was placed in the Common Pleas on January 27, 1729.
There he continued for above seventeen years, when his age
and infirmities warned him to resign; which he did in June
1746. He had for some time previously been in such a state
of health that he could not go the circuit, even in the sum-
mer season; and so long before as 1741 he had petitioned
for leave to retire with a pension, accompanied by the incon-
sistent request that a seat in the House of Commons might
be obtained for him.1 When at last permitted to resign,
after a service in all the three courts extending to twenty-
eight years, his senatorial ambition was gratified by the grant
of a barony in the Irish peerage in August following his
resignation. His title was Lord Fortescue of Credan in the
county of Waterford; but he enjoyed it for little more than
four months, dying in his seventy-seventh year on December
19, 1746.

In addition to his reputation as an excellent lawyer and
an able and impartial judge, he had the character of being
well versed in Norman and Saxon literature. This he fully
maintained in the introductory remarks to his edition of
the treatise of his illustrious ancestor Sir John Fortescue,

that occasion

a

dedicated to Antitled "The Difference between Absolute and Limited hane's death. See the Allusion Monarch which he published in 1714, bong then 2 Belloy moto and of the Royal Society. His Law Reports of Select cases with an were prepared for publication before his death, but not explanation of it that printed till 1748. His judgments may be found in Lordarto Raymond, Strange, and other reporters. Of his manner on "dient the bench the following illustration in Bentley's case may de serve as an example. "The laws of God and man," he said, "against Mapa "both give the party an opportunity to make his defence iftis he has any. I remember to have heard it observed by a very learned man, that even God himself did not pass sentence upon Adam, before he was called upon to make his Harris's Life of Lord Hardwicke, i. 484, 487, 511.

defence. Adam (says God) where art thou? Hast thou not eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the same question was put to Eve also." Of his appearance, the "Conveyancer's Guide " (p. 107) gives this description while he was in the Exchequer:"The baron had one of the strangest noses ever seen; its shape resembled much the trunk of an elephant. Brother, brother,' said the baron to the counsel, 'you are handling the cause in a very lame manner.' 'Oh! no, my lord,' was the reply, have patience with me, and I'll make it as plain as the nose in your lordship's face.""

He was himself long involved in law, the Reports detailing proceedings from 3 Geo. I. to 19 Geo. II. between him and Aland Mason, relative to some property of his maternal grandfather. The "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1741 also notices the termination in the House of Lords of a suit which had been depending for ten years between him and John Dormer, a relation of his second wife, concerning the property of her father, in which he was unsuccessful.1

Lord Fortescue's first wife was Grace, daughter of Chief Justice Pratt, by whom he had two sons, who died unmarried in their father's lifetime. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Justice Dormer, by whom he left a son, his successor in his title and estates, one of which was Lamborn Hall in Essex; on whose death in 1781 without issue, the peerage expired.2

ATKYNS, JOHN TRACY,

CURS. B. E. 1755.

See under the Reign of George III.

1 Strange, 567, 861, 1258; Lord Raymond, 1433; Gent. Mag. xi. 106. * Collins' Peerage, v. 344; Biog. Dict. by Chalmers and by Rose.