John Leach (judge)
Sir John Leach | |
|---|---|
 Sir John Leach, engraving by Henry Dawe | |
| Master of the Rolls | |
| Preceded by | Sir John Copley |
| Succeeded by | Sir Charles Pepys |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 August 1760 Bedford |
| Died | 14 September 1834 (aged 74) Edinburgh |
Sir John Leach (28 August 1760 – 14 September 1834) was an English judge, and Master of the Rolls.
Life
The son of Richard Leach, a coppersmith of Bedford, he was born in that town on 28 August 1760. After leaving Bedford School he became a pupil of Sir Robert Taylor the architect. In his office he is said to have made the working drawings for the erection of Stone Buildings, which are still preserved at Lincoln's Inn, and to have designed Howletts, in the parish of Bekesbourne, Kent. On the recommendation of his old fellow-pupil, Samuel Pepys Cockerell, and other friends, Leach abandoned architecture for the law, and was admitted a student of the Middle Temple on 26 January 1785.[1]
Having studied of conveyancing and equity drafting in the chambers of
At a by-election in July 1806, he was returned for Seaford, but owing to the prorogation did not take his seat in that parliament. He was again returned at the general election in the following October, and continued to represent Seaford until his retirement from parliamentary life in 1816. In Hilary term 1807 Leach was made a
Early in February 1816, Leach vacated his seat in the House of Commons by accepting the
He died at Simpson's Hotel in Edinburgh on 14 September 1834, aged 74, and was buried on 20 September 1834, in William Adam's mausoleum in Greyfriars Kirkyard.[1]
Assessment
Leach's decisions were lucid and brief, but as he often decided on his own judgment in preference to that of his predecessors, they were not infrequently over-ruled. His demeanour on the bench brought him into constant collision with members of the bar. While he was master of the rolls the customary evening sittings of the court were abandoned, and on 22 June 1829 the practice of sitting in the daytime began. Though Leach was professedly a Whig when he entered Parliament, he adopted the politics of the Regent, whose confidential adviser he had become. At his instigation the Milan commission was instituted in 1818 to investigate the conduct of the Princess of Wales; he was strongly in favour of a divorce. Some of Leach's equity pleadings, signed 'J. L.,' were printed in F. M. Van Heythuysen's 'Equity Draftsman' (London, 1816, 8vo). His speech of 31 December 1810 on the regency resolutions was published in 1811 (London, 8vo, second edition). He was created D.C.L. by the university of Oxford on 5 July 1810.[1]
Family
He never married. His nephew, Richard Howell Leach, a son of his youngest brother, Thomas Leach, was the senior chancery registrar from 1868 to 1882.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Barker 1892.
- ^ "LEACH, John (1760-1834), of 10 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, Mdx. and Seaford, Suss". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Barker, George Fisher Russell (1892). "Leach, John". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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