Erskine May
Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bt | |
---|---|
Succeeded by | Sir Reginald Palgrave |
Personal details | |
Born | Thomas Erskine May 8 February 1815 Highgate, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom |
Died | 17 May 1886 St George Hanover Square, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom | (aged 71)
Thomas Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough,
His seminal work, A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament (first published in 1844) has become known as Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice or simply Erskine May: this parliamentary authority (book of procedural rules) is currently in its 25th revised edition (2019) and is informally considered part of the constitution of the United Kingdom.
Following his retirement as Clerk of the House of Commons in May 1886, May was created "Baron Farnborough, of Farnborough, in the county of Southampton" just a week before his death. Since he left no heirs, the barony became extinct, making it the second-shortest-lived peerage in British history.[1]
Biography
Thomas Erskine May was born in Highgate, Middlesex, on 8 February 1815. He was christened on 21 September 1815 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster with his parents being registered as Thomas and Sarah May.[2] He was educated at Bedford School.[3]
May began his parliamentary service in 1831, at the age of 16, as Assistant Librarian in the
May was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 16 May 1860[7] and promoted to Knight Commander (KCB) on 6 July 1866.[8] On 16 February 1871, he was appointed Clerk of the House of Commons by letters patent.[9]
In 1873, he was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple and awarded an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law by the University of Oxford in 1874. In 1880, he was made a Reader of the Middle Temple and sworn of the Privy Council in 1884.
On 10 May 1886, shortly after his retirement as Clerk of the House of Commons, May was created "
Notable works
May's most famous work, A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament (now popularly known as Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice or simply Erskine May), was first published in 1844. The book is currently in its 25th edition (2019). It is informally considered part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. The guide is authoritative in many Commonwealth nations, often with strong influence on constitutional convention.
Another notable work is The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of
References
- ^ Leigh Rayment (1 September 2015). "Peerage Records". Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Parish register printouts of Westminster, London, England (Saint Martin in the Fields), christenings, 1813–1837.
- St Margaret. County/Island: London. Country: England. Street Address: Palace of Westminster. Condition as to marriage: Married. Occupation: K.C.B. Clerk Of The House Of Commons. Registration district: St George Hanover Square. Sub-registration district: St Margaret Westminster. Enumeration district: 1." Source: The National Archives, class RG11, piece 117, folio 18, page 30.
- .
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 139–140.
- ^ "Correspondence of Lady Farnborough and Miss E G Laughton". Archived from the original on 12 June 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ^ "No. 22387". The London Gazette. 18 May 1860. p. 1915.
- ^ "No. 23134". The London Gazette. 6 July 1866. p. 3871.
- ^ The formal appointment, as Under Clerk of the Parliaments, was officially announced on 2 February. "No. 23702". The London Gazette. 3 February 1871. p. 383.
- ^ "No. 25585". The London Gazette. 11 May 1886. p. 2269.
- ^ Death certificate: "Name: May, Thomas Erskine (Lord Farnborough). Age at Death: 71. District: St George Hanover Square. County: London, Middlesex." General Register Office, England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, April–June 1886, volume 1a, page 305.
- ^ William McKay, May, Thomas Erskine, Baron Farnborough (1815–1886), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2000. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
- ^ Butterfield, Herbert (1957). George III and the Historians. London: Collins. p. 152.