William Ballantine
Encyclopedia
Serjeant-at-law
The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...
(January 3, 1812 – January 9, 1887) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Serjeant-at-law
Serjeant-at-law
The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...
, a legal position defunct since the legal reforms of the 1870s.
Early career
Born in Howland Street, Tottenham Court RoadTottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, United Kingdom, running from St Giles Circus north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile...
in Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
, 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 son of a police-magistrate, Ballantine was educated at St Paul's School, and called to the Bar
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
in 1834. He joined the Criminal Court and travelled the judicial 'Home Circuit', which necessitated him attending courts in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. As a young man he had a wide familiarity with dramatic and literary society, meeting many writers, including Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
and Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
, and this background helped to obtain for him a large legal practice, particularly in criminal cases. In the late 1840s, Ballantine became known as a formidable cross-examiner
Cross-examination
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination and may be followed by a redirect .- Variations by Jurisdiction :In...
, having become involved in several famous cases, where he was able to display these skills. His great rival at during this period was Serjeant Parry (1816–1880).
Serjeant-at-Law
Ballantine became a Serjeant-at-law in 1856, being then entitled to wear the white coif or cap of that rank (see illustration). He was one of the last Serjeants in the courts, that title and position being abolished in the judicial reformsSupreme Court of Judicature Act 1873
The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 was an Act of Parliament by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1873...
of 1873. During the 1860s, he took on a number of high-profile cases.
Mordaunt divorce trial
Ballantine served as CounselCounsel
A counsel or a counselor gives advice, more particularly in legal matters.-U.K. and Ireland:The legal system in England uses the term counsel as an approximate synonym for a barrister-at-law, and may apply it to mean either a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, the body of barristers...
for Sir Charles Mordaunt
Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th Baronet
Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th Baronet was a wealthy English country gentleman, a Conservative Member of Parliament for South Warwickshire , High Sheriff of Warwickshire 1879, was notorious for involving the Prince of Wales in his divorce case.Sir Charles was married on 7 December 1866 to Harriet...
in the then notorious divorce case against his wife. Lady Mordaunt, who was much younger than her husband, informed him that he was not the father of her child. She admitted to him that she had committed adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
with a number of men, including the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, 'often, and in open day.'
It became clear that because of these revelations that the Prince of Wales would have to be summoned to court to give evidence in the case. Although he could be subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
ed, he could not be forced to give evidence; Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
, his mother, advised him not to attend the court. However, the Prince agreed to attend the court, and to be questioned. After delicate questioning by Lady Mordaunt's counsel, the Prince denied that 'any improper familiarity or criminal act' had taken place between himself and Lady Mordaunt. It was generally believed that by stating this the Prince had perjured
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
himself.
Ballantine, as counsel for Lord Mordaunt, the plaintiff
Plaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
, was entitled to cross-examine the Prince of Wales. Instead, in an attempt to save the Prince from any embarrassment, he declared that he had no questions for His Royal Highness, thus saving the Prince's honour. However, Ballantine lost the case because he had failed to convince the jury that Lady Mordaunt was guilty.
Retirement
In the early 1880s, Ballantine retired from the LawLaw
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
in order to write and travel, publishing several volumes of reminiscences. His interest in the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
made him a familiar sight around London. Although he was recognised as an incisive cross-examiner, Ballantine was not regarded by his peers as being 'a model legal mind.' The Law Times, in his obituary, stated that Ballantine "left behind him scarcely any lesson, even in his own poor biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, which the rising generation could profitably learn."
He died at Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
aged 75 years. Ballantine’s private life was considered Bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
; and though he earned large sums, he died poor.
Other Cases
Among Ballantine's other notable cases were:- his successful prosecution of Franz MullerFranz MullerFranz Muller , a German tailor, murdered Thomas Briggs in the first murder committed on a British train. The case caught the imagination of the public due to increasing safety fears about rail travel at the time, and the pursuit of Muller across the Atlantic Ocean by Scotland Yard...
for the murder of Mr. Briggs in 1864, - his skilful defence of the Tichborne claimantTichborne CaseThe affair of the Tichborne claimant was the celebrated 19th-century legal case in the United Kingdom of Arthur Orton , an imposter who claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne , the missing heir to the Tichborne Baronetcy....
in 1871, and - his defence of the GaekwadGaekwadThe Gaekwad or Gaikwad was a Maratha dynasty that ruled the princely state of Baroda in western India from the mid-18th century until 1947...
(Gaekwar) Maharaja of BarodaVadodaraVadodara formerly known as Baroda is the third most populated city in the Indian State of Gujarat . It is one of the four cities with the population of over 1 million...
in 1875, his fee in this last case being one of the largest ever known at the time.