Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon

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Sir Richard Arden
(later Lord Alvanley)
In office
18 April 1782 – 2 May 1783
Preceded byJames Wallace
Succeeded byJames Wallace
Personal details
Born
Lloyd Kenyon

(1732-10-05)5 October 1732
Gredington, Flintshire, Wales
Died4 April 1802(1802-04-04) (aged 69)
Bath, England
NationalityBritish
ProfessionBarrister

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon,

Member of Parliament (MP) for Hindon the same year, serving repeatedly as Attorney General under William Pitt the Younger. He effectively sacrificed his political career in 1784 to challenge the ballot of Charles James Fox
, and was rewarded with a baronetcy; from then on he did not speak in the House of Commons, despite remaining an MP.

On 27 March 1784, he was appointed

Lord Chief Justice, and was granted a barony. Although not rated as highly as his predecessor, his work "restored the simplicity and rigor of the common law".[3]
He remained Lord Chief Justice until his death in 1802.

Early life and education

Kenyon was born on 5 November 1732 in Gredington,

called to the Bar on 10 February 1756.[11]

Career as a barrister

Without the education or connections that a university education would have provided he was almost entirely unemployed for several years.

Lord Mansfield conduct cases at the Court of King's Bench.[13][1] His early business was almost entirely conveyancing, and to make extra money he began to attend the Welsh Circuit, where Tomlinson's contacts allowed him to pick up some small cases. After several years of this he also began attending quarter sessions at Oxford, Stafford and Shrewsbury, "where he was more successful".[14] While his work slowly began to increase, his main rise was due to his friendship with John Dunning, at the time a similarly near-unemployed barrister. In 1762 one of the leaders of the Northern Circuit died, and his work was given to Dunning; as he found himself with too many cases, he gave many to Kenyon. In 1767, for example, Kenyon dealt with 20 of Dunning's cases. As a result of his speedy and efficient work attorneys began to employ him directly, and within 10 years he was making £3,000 a year just from opinions.[15]

Kenyon's next rise came about as a result of his introduction to the

Chief Justiceship of Chester died that year, Thurlow ensured that it was given to Kenyon.[18] The rise of Kenyon's work in the Court of Chancery was also attributed to his friendship with Thurlow, who as Lord Chancellor was the head of the Court.[19]

Political career

When Parliament was dissolved in 1780, Thurlow ensured that Kenyon was returned as a

Fox-North Coalition. He instead allied himself with William Pitt the Younger, leading the opposition to the first Act of the new government and strongly supporting an opposition bill to reform the Exchequer.[24] When the new government was dismissed on 19 December and Pitt took control, Kenyon was again made Attorney-General. He again took the lead on the issue of the Paymaster of the Forces, and commanded that Richard Rigby, Paymaster until 1782, "do deliver to the House an account of the balance of all public money remaining in his hands on the 13th day of November last", something Rigby complained was against common practice.[25]

In 1784 Thomas Sewell died, and, as was tradition, Kenyon succeeded him as Master of the Rolls on 27 March.[26] Initially intending to withdraw from Parliament, Kenyon was persuaded to remain as an MP and Attorney General to increase Pitt's majority. Having purchased the seat of Tregony he "was resolved to go the whole hog", and became one of the strongest and most visible supporters of Pitt. With his contacts in Wales, he secured votes for several ministerial candidates in Welsh constituencies.[27] In an attempt to have Charles James Fox removed as an MP he had Fox's ballot challenged; while this backfired,[28] he was awarded with a baronetcy for the effective sacrifice of his political career.[29] As a result of this controversy he stated that "legislation was a task to which he had by no means thought himself equal", and stayed silent in Parliament for the rest of his life.[30]

Judicial career

Having withdrawn from politics, Kenyon instead switched his focus to his job as

Lord Chief Justice, Kenyon succeeded him on 9 June 1788, and was made Baron Kenyon of Gredington, in the county of Flint.[2]

Kenyon's appointment was initially greeted with caution by his fellow

trusts or a pecuniary legacy; it was said that he "restored the simplicity and rigor of the common law".[3] After nearly one and a half decades as a judge, Kenyon died on 4 April 1802 in Bath.[33]

Personal life

In 1773 he married his cousin, Mary Kenyon, with whom he had three sons; Lloyd, who predeceased him, George, and Thomas.[34] Kenyon was noted by John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell as "a man of wonderful quickness of perception, of considerable intellectual nimbleness, of much energy of purpose, and of unwearied industry",[35] although Campbell noted that, thanks to Kenyon's lack of a university education, he knew only "the corner of jurisprudence which he professionally cultivated; he had not even the information generally picked up by the clever clerk of a country attorney". He was noted as arrogant, despising things he did not understand and condemning any opinions he disagreed with regardless of his knowledge of them. He never attempted to reform the judicial system, and "his habits of sordid parsimony brought discredit on the high station which he filled".[36] Campbell, however, has been criticized as a biographer. When his Lives of the Chief Justices was published, which included his biography of Lord Kenyon, the Law Magazine commented that "Lord Campbell has confounded, or not rightly understood, the distinction between true and false. His political virus oozes out in sly general remarks and bantering innuendoes." (Law Magazine vol.43, p5, 209.) Despite this, as a judge he was seen as "profound in legal erudition, patient in judicial discrimination, and of the most determined integrity".[37]

Arms

Coat of arms of Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon
Crest
A lion sejant Proper resting the dexter forepaw on a cross flory Argent.
Escutcheon
Sable a chevron engrailed Or between three crosses flory Argent.
Supporters
Two female figures the dexter representing Truth vested in white her head irradiated on her breast a sun and in her right hand a mirror all Proper; the sinister representing Fortitude clad in a corset of mail robe Or mantle Gules on her head a casque plumed Gules in her right hand a branch of oak and her left arm resting on a pillar Proper.[38]

References

  1. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ a b Campbell (2006), p. 50.
  3. ^ a b Campbell (2006), p. 61.
  4. ^ Townsend (1846), p. 33.
  5. ^ Phillips (1807), p. 578.
  6. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 9.
  7. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 19.
  8. ^ Chalmers (1815), p. 328.
  9. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 13.
  10. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 21.
  11. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 14.
  12. ^ Phillips (1807), p. 579.
  13. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 15.
  14. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 19.
  15. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 25.
  16. ^ Kenyon (1990), p. 26.
  17. ^ Chalmers (1815), p. 329.
  18. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 25.
  19. ^ Phillips (1807), p. 580.
  20. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 27.
  21. ^ Chalmers (1815), p. 330.
  22. ^ Townsend (1846), p. 43.
  23. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 33.
  24. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 36.
  25. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 37.
  26. ^ Foss (1843), p. 137.
  27. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 40.
  28. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 43.
  29. ^ Townsend (1846), p. 48.
  30. ^ a b Campbell (2006), p. 46.
  31. ^ Phillips (1807), p. 582.
  32. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 58.
  33. ^ Hay, Douglas (2004). "Oxford DNB article: Kenyon, Lloyd (subscription needed)". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  34. ^ Townsend (1846), p. 41.
  35. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 17.
  36. ^ Campbell (2006), p. 18.
  37. ^ Foss (1843), p. 138.
  38. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1878.

Bibliography

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Archibald Macdonald
 Member of Parliament for
Nathaniel William Wraxall
 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tregony
1784–1788
With: Robert Kingsmill 		Succeeded by
Hugh Seymour-Conway
Legal offices
Preceded by
Chief Justice of Chester

1780–1784 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Attorney General
1782–1783 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Attorney General
1783–1784 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Master of the Rolls
1784–1788 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Chief Justice
1788–1802 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire
1796–1798 		Succeeded by
Vacant
Title last held by
The Earl of Plymouth 		Custos Rotulorum of Flintshire
1796–1802 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation Baron Kenyon
1788–1802 		Succeeded by
George Kenyon
Baronetage of Great Britain
New creation
Baronet

(of Gredington, Flint) 
1784–1802 		Succeeded by
George Kenyon
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