Edward Alderson (judge)

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Baron Alderson

Sir Edward Hall Alderson (baptised 11 September 1787 – 27 January 1857) was an English lawyer and judge whose many judgments on commercial law helped to shape the emerging British capitalism of the Victorian era.[1]

He was a Baron of the Exchequer and so held the honorary title Baron Alderson, in print Alderson, B.

Early life

Born in

Smith's prize, was First Medallist, and Chancellor's Gold Medallist. During free time he became an ardent debater and avid reader; winning Middle Bachelors, and the Latin Prize for Comparison of Ancient Dialogues with Modern. In his finals year he also won the Members Prize, and Senior Bachelors Prize. He was consequently elected fellow.[2]

A pupil of

called to the bar in 1811 at the Inner Temple and began work on the northern circuit where he established a substantial practice. He joined with Richard Barnewall as a law reporter from 1817 to 1822. On 26 October 1823 he married Georgina Drewe (died 1871) and the couple had many children.[1]

An early indication of his abilities came in 1825 when he was instructed by opponents of the proposed

private bill needed to establish the railway. Alderson was to cross-examine George Stephenson on his designs for the railway and the surveys on which they were based. Alderson proved an able advocate and Stephenson a poor witness. Stephenson later confessed, "I was not long in the witness box before I began to wish for a hole to creep out at." Largely owing to Alderson's devastating closing speech, the bill was lost, the railway was delayed for several years and Stephenson's early reputation badly damaged.[3]

Judicial career

Alderson was appointed to the

Queen's Counsel or Member of Parliament.[1]

Personality and family

Although as a

deterrence and argued for the limitation of capital punishment, himself seeking to disapply it, by whatever technical means he could creatively devise.[1]

An active member of the

affirmation as an alternative to the oath for witnesses but opposed the growing contemporary campaign for secular education. Hedley describes Alderson as a "Conservative... suspicious of the 'tyranny' he saw in democracy".[1]

Alderson established homes in London and

Latin, and corresponded with his cousin, novelist Amelia Opie.[1] He was also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable follower of horse racing.[4]

While sitting at Liverpool assizes in December 1856, he heard of a serious injury to one of his sons and collapsed. He died the following January at his London home from a brain disease. He was buried at St Mary Magdalen's Church, Risby, near Bury St Edmunds.[1]

Alderson's daughter, Georgina, married British statesman, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1857. Salisbury's father, James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, opposed the marriage owing to Georgina's lack of wealth and social standing.[5]

His grandson, Edward Alderson, served as Clerk to the Parliaments between 1930 and 1934.[6]

Cases

  • Miller v. Salomons - oath of abjuration
  • R v Pritchard (1836) 7 C. & P. 303 continues to be used in modern criminal cases in England and Wales as having laid down the criteria for assessing a defendant's fitness to plead.[7]
  • Winterbottom v. Wright (1842) – Reasserted the traditional doctrine of privity of contract to dismiss a negligence claim for damages by a pedestrian who was injured by a defective vehicle.[8]
  • Wood v Peel (1844) – in a trial to determine the winner of the Derby, Alderson ordered that the purported winner Running Rein be produced in court. The horse could not be found and the result of the race was overturned.[9][10]
  • R v. Serva and others
  • priest-penitent privilege applied in England.[11]
  • Neilson v Harford (1841) – Distinguished patenting a principle (impermissible) from patenting a physical implementation of a principle (permissible)
  • White v Bluett
  • Knight (Clerk) v. The Marquess of Waterford
  • Hadley v Baxendale (1854) – Defined the scope of contractual damages in English law.
  • Blyth v Company Proprietors of the Birmingham Water Works (1856) – Introduced the concept of the reasonable person
    in setting judicial standards for the appropriate level of care owed to another.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Hedley (2004)
  2. ^ "Alderson, Edward Hall (ALDR804EH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ISBN 0-14-007646-8
    .
  4. ^ Foulkes (2010), p. 213
  5. ^ Grenville, J. A. S. (2001) "Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot...." Encyclopædia Britannica Deluxe Edition CD-ROM.
  6. ^ "Sir Edward Alderson", The Times, 9 March 1951, p. 8.
  7. ^ Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice 2014, 4–235 at page 431
  8. ISBN 0-19-926055-9
    .
  9. ^ Burke, E. (1845). The Annual Register, or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1844. London: Rivington. pp. pp350–352. (Google Books)
  10. ^ Foulkes (2010)
  11. ISBN 0-455-21149-3
    .

Bibliography

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Edward Hall Alderson.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Edward Alderson (judge).
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