Samuel Romilly
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
legal reformer.
Background and education
Romilly was born in Frith Street, SohoSoho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the second son of Peter Romilly, a watchmaker and jeweller. His grandfather had emigrated from Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
after the revocation of the edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
, and had married Margaret Garnault, a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
refugee like himself, but of a far wealthier family. Samuel served for a time in his father's shop; he was well-educated, becoming a good classical scholar and particularly conversant with French literature. A legacy of £2000 from one of his mother's relations led to his being articled to a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
and clerk in chancery
Court of equity
A chancery court, equity court or court of equity is a court that is authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it.These courts began with petitions to the Lord Chancellor of England...
with the idea of qualifying himself to purchase the office of one of the six clerks in chancery.
Legal career
In 1778, however, Romilly determined to go to the bar, and entered himself at Gray's InnGray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. He went to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1781, where he made the acquaintance of the chief democratic leaders, including Étienne Dumont
Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont
Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont , French political writer, was born at Geneva, of which his family had been citizens of good repute from the days of Calvin....
. Called to the bar in 1783, he went the midland circuit, but was chiefly occupied with chancery practice. On the publication of Martin Madan
Martin Madan
Martin Madan was an English barrister, clergyman and writer, known for controversial views on marriage expressed in his book Thelyphthora.-Life:...
's Thoughts on Executive Justice, advocating the increase of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
s, he at once wrote and published in 1786 Observations on Madan's book.
Of more general interest is his intimacy with the great Honoré Mirabeau, to whom he was introduced in 1784. Mirabeau saw him daily for a long time and introduced him to Lord Lansdowne, who highly appreciated him, and, when Mirabeau became a political leader, it was to Romilly that he applied for an account of the procedure used in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
.
He visited Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1789, and studied the course of the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
there; and in 1790 he published his Thoughts on the Probable Influence of the Late Revolution in France upon Great Britain, a work of great power. His practice at the chancery bar continued largely to increase, and in 1800 he was made a King's Counsel. In 1805 he was appointed chancellor of the county palatine of Durham.
Political career
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
party, to which he attached himself; and in 1806, on the accession of the "Ministry of All the Talents" to office, he was offered the post of Solicitor General, although he had never sat in the House of Commons. He accepted the office, and was knight
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
ed and brought into parliament for Queenborough
Queenborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Queenborough was a rotten borough situated on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.From 1572 until it was abolished by the great reform act of 1832, it returned two Members of Parliament. The franchise was vested in the freemen of the town, of whom there were more than 300. Its electorate was therefore one...
. He went out of office with the government, but remained in the House of Commons, sitting successively for Horsham
Horsham (UK Parliament constituency)
Horsham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
, Wareham
Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)
Wareham was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1302 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.-History:...
and Arundel
Arundel (UK Parliament constituency)
Arundel was twice a parliamentary constituency in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The first incarnation strictly comprised the town centre of Arundel and was a borough constituency first enfranchised in 1332 and disfranchised in 1868 under the Reform...
.
Legal reforms
It was now that Romilly commenced the greatest labour of his life, his attempt to reform the criminal law of England and Wales, then at once cruel and illogical. His work in reforming criminal law began with his Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786), which developed the views of Beccaria. By statute law, innumerable offences were punished by death, but, as such wholesale executions would be impossible, the larger number of those convicted and sentenced to death at every assizes were respited, after having heard the sentence of death solemnly passed upon them. This led to many acts of injustice, as the lives of the convicts depended on the caprice of the judges, while at the same time it made the whole system of punishments and of the criminal law ridiculous.Romilly saw this, and in 1808, he managed to repeal the Elizabethan statute, which made it a capital offence to steal from the person. This success, however, raised opposition, and in the following year, three bills repealing equally sanguinary statutes were thrown out by the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
under the influence of Lord Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough PC KC was an English judge. After serving as a Member of Parliament and Attorney General, he became Lord Chief Justice.-Early life:...
. Year after year, the same influence prevailed, and Romilly saw his bills rejected; but his patient efforts and his eloquence ensured victory eventually for his cause by opening the eyes of the people of England and Wales to the barbarity of their criminal law. The only success he had was in securing the repeal in 1812 of a statute of Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
making it a capital offence for a soldier or a mariner to beg without a pass from a magistrate or his commanding officer.
Romilly's efforts made his name famous not only in the UK but all over Europe, and in 1818, he had the honour of being returned at the head of the poll for the city of Westminster
Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)
Westminster was a parliamentary constituency in the Parliament of England to 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain 1707-1800 and the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801. It returned two members to 1885 and one thereafter....
. However, he died shortly afterwards.
Family
Romilly married Anne Garbett, daughter of Francis Garbett, of Knill Court, HerefordshireHerefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, in 1798. They had two sons, Sir John Romilly
John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly
John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly PC, QC , known as Sir John Romilly between 1848 and 1866, was an English Whig politician and judge. He served in Lord John Russell's first administration as Solicitor-General from 1848 to 1850 and as Attorney-General from 1850 and 1851...
, a distinguished lawyer and politician who was ennobled as Baron Romilly
Baron Romilly
Baron Romilly, of Barry in the County of Glamorgan, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 3 January 1866 for Sir John Romilly, the Master of the Rolls and former Solicitor General and Attorney General. He was the second son of the legal reformer Sir Samuel Romilly. The...
in 1866, and Frederick Romilly
Frederick Romilly
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Romilly , was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1850 to 1852 and a cricketer who played for MCC....
, a politician. On 29 October 1818 Lady Romilly died in the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
. The shock was dreadful to Romilly. In his agony he fell into a delirium, and in a moment, when unwatched, he sprang from his bed, cut his throat, and expired in a few minutes. The event took place at his house in Russell Square
Russell Square
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. To the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on 2 November 1818.
See the Memoirs of the Life of Sir Samuel Romilly written by himself, with a selection from his Correspondence, edited by his sons (3 vols., 1840); The Speeches of Sir Samuel Romilly in the House of Commons (2 vols., 1820); Life and Work of Sir Samuel Romilly, by Sir WJ Collins, in Trans. of the Huguenot Society (1908).