William Roupell
Encyclopedia
William Roupell was Liberal Party
Member of Parliament
of the United Kingdom for Lambeth
from 1857 until his resignation on 4 February 1862. A forger and a fraud
ster, he was ruined in the Roupell case
.
. William had an elder brother, John, and two younger sisters. In 1838, following the deaths of Richard Palmer's parents, the couple married. Richard Palmer and Sarah had one legitimate child, Richard (1840–1883).
Richard Palmer amassed considerable wealth in property, especially that he sold to the emerging railway network and William became interested in the business. William was articled
a lawyer's clerk at Haslam & Rees from 1849 to 1854 though he made only one appearance, for his father, in court once qualified. William assisted his father in the property business but felt the allowance he received to be inadequate. By this time, he had come to suspect his illegitimacy and, rightly, that his father's will
was made in favour of Richard. William was intent on establishing himself in fashionable society and spent freely to realise his aim. By 1853, he was already £1,000 in debt and as early as 1850 he had already fraudulently mortgaged one of his father's properties at Norbiton Farm to raise funds.
In September 1853, William forged a deed of gift
from his mother of Roupell Park, again fraudulently mortgaging the property. He had represented himself the agent of an investor in order to gain access to the deed
s and now found rents from the property paid into his hands. In 1855, his finances not improving, he again represented himself as agent in a land purchase in order to defraud funds from his father. Further frauds and forgeries followed, including a property at Warley, until William had expropriated some GBP100,000.
Richard Palmer died on 5 September 1856 and William took the opportunity to destroy the will made in favour of Richard and to forge an alternative in favour of his mother. He was now certain of his illegitimacy. Probate
was granted on the forged will on 24 September and William now found access to funds through his mother straightforward.
, William was elected to the Lambeth Vestry
whose job was to co-ordinate the area's developing infrastructure though he appears to have taken little active role in proceedings. William resolved to stand for parliament in Lambeth and launched his campaign in 1857 with a speech making much of his understanding of working class
life and declaring himself to be a reformer:
On 28 March, his nomination was proposed by Frederick Doulton
(1824–1872), brother of Sir Henry Doulton
, who had been an unsuccessful candidate at previous elections. Doulton appears to have written many of William's speeches and William had played his part by lavish entertainment of the electorate.
Williams was elected to the House of Commons in the 1857 general election
but his campaign was alleged to have cost £6,000, some claimed £9,000. He was accused of bribing and corrupting
voters, opening public house
s for popular resort and maintaining that they were hired as committee rooms, and paying canvassers. A committee of the House of Commons convened to investigate the allegations. However, it turned out that the agitators for the investigation, Pattison Nickalls and Robert Bristowe, had offered to withdraw their petition and to ensure William a directorship of the South London Railway Company(see talk page) should William use his influence to ensure the passage of the legislation they needed. The investigation was dropped but William's reputation was becoming increasingly tainted.
William held a "Lambeth Election Fête and Dinner" to celebrate his double victory. However, he spoke rarely in the House, devoting most of his energies to developing his property portfolio. He did speak on 25 June 1858, the year of The Great Stink
, to criticise sewer
schemes that impacted his property. By the 1859 general election
, the voters of Lambeth seemed largely to have forgotten, or rationalised, their distaste for William's ethics, and the re-elected him.
that he had taken out on the misappropriated property and on 30 March destroyed some of his papers and fled to Spain
. In August, his brother Richard visited him in Spain and William returned to England. He was recognised and arrested for fraud
and forgery.
Richard now initiated a sequence of court cases in the hope of restoring his fortune, firstly against Waite, who was now in possession of the Norbiton Estate.
William gave evidence for his brother, admitting the frauds and forgeries and his own perjury
in the grant of probate
of his father's estate. It was to have been Waite's defence that William was colluding with his brother Richard, possibly in return for some compensation, but the defence was never heard as the case settled, dividing the value of the estate between Waite and Richard Roupell.
On 24 September 1862, William appeared at the Old Bailey
and pleaded guilty to the forgery. The judge, Mr Justice Byles
, emphasising the seriousness of the offences, sentenced William to penal servitude for life
.
to Gibraltar
because he was expected to be a witness in further trials. He spent much of his sentence in hard labour at the Chatham Dockyard
. William was released on parole
in September 1876. Richard spent the rest of his life attempting, largely unsuccessfully, to recover some of his lost furtune
Richard died in 1883, leaving William an annuity
of £52 per year, hardly enough to compensate for 14 years in gaol for perjoring himself in Richard's cause. William became, by all accounts, an amiable old man, involved in the church and charity work and an enthusiastic and able gardener. William died of heart failure and pneumonia
at a nursing home in Streatham Hill. In the end, fondly remembered, he was buried in the family vault at West Norwood Cemetery
.
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of the United Kingdom for Lambeth
Lambeth (UK Parliament constituency)
Lambeth was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Lambeth district of South London. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.-History:...
from 1857 until his resignation on 4 February 1862. A forger and a fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
ster, he was ruined in the Roupell case
Roupell case
The Roupell case was a notorious English legal dispute that centred around legal documents alleged to have been forged by William Roupell and excited great public interest.-Background:...
.
Early life
William was the illegitimate son of Richard Palmer Roupell (1782–1856), scrap-metal dealer and property developer, and Sarah Crane (1796–1878), daughter of Thomas, a carpenterCarpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
. William had an elder brother, John, and two younger sisters. In 1838, following the deaths of Richard Palmer's parents, the couple married. Richard Palmer and Sarah had one legitimate child, Richard (1840–1883).
Richard Palmer amassed considerable wealth in property, especially that he sold to the emerging railway network and William became interested in the business. William was articled
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
a lawyer's clerk at Haslam & Rees from 1849 to 1854 though he made only one appearance, for his father, in court once qualified. William assisted his father in the property business but felt the allowance he received to be inadequate. By this time, he had come to suspect his illegitimacy and, rightly, that his father's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
was made in favour of Richard. William was intent on establishing himself in fashionable society and spent freely to realise his aim. By 1853, he was already £1,000 in debt and as early as 1850 he had already fraudulently mortgaged one of his father's properties at Norbiton Farm to raise funds.
In September 1853, William forged a deed of gift
Gift (law)
A gift, in the law of property, is the voluntary transfer of property from one person to another without full valuable consideration...
from his mother of Roupell Park, again fraudulently mortgaging the property. He had represented himself the agent of an investor in order to gain access to the deed
Deed
A deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
s and now found rents from the property paid into his hands. In 1855, his finances not improving, he again represented himself as agent in a land purchase in order to defraud funds from his father. Further frauds and forgeries followed, including a property at Warley, until William had expropriated some GBP100,000.
Richard Palmer died on 5 September 1856 and William took the opportunity to destroy the will made in favour of Richard and to forge an alternative in favour of his mother. He was now certain of his illegitimacy. Probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
was granted on the forged will on 24 September and William now found access to funds through his mother straightforward.
Member of Parliament for Lambeth
Following the Metropolis Management Act 1855Metropolis Management Act 1855
The Metropolis Management Act 1855 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body to co-ordinate the construction of the city's infrastructure. The Act also created a second tier of local government consisting of parish vestries...
, William was elected to the Lambeth Vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
whose job was to co-ordinate the area's developing infrastructure though he appears to have taken little active role in proceedings. William resolved to stand for parliament in Lambeth and launched his campaign in 1857 with a speech making much of his understanding of working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
life and declaring himself to be a reformer:
On 28 March, his nomination was proposed by Frederick Doulton
Frederick Doulton
Frederick Doulton was a British Liberal Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Lambeth from 5 May 1862 until 1868.- Biography :...
(1824–1872), brother of Sir Henry Doulton
Henry Doulton
Sir Henry Doulton was an English businessman, inventor and manufacturer of pottery, instrumental in developing the firm of Royal Doulton....
, who had been an unsuccessful candidate at previous elections. Doulton appears to have written many of William's speeches and William had played his part by lavish entertainment of the electorate.
Williams was elected to the House of Commons in the 1857 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1857
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
but his campaign was alleged to have cost £6,000, some claimed £9,000. He was accused of bribing and corrupting
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
voters, opening public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s for popular resort and maintaining that they were hired as committee rooms, and paying canvassers. A committee of the House of Commons convened to investigate the allegations. However, it turned out that the agitators for the investigation, Pattison Nickalls and Robert Bristowe, had offered to withdraw their petition and to ensure William a directorship of the South London Railway Company(see talk page) should William use his influence to ensure the passage of the legislation they needed. The investigation was dropped but William's reputation was becoming increasingly tainted.
William held a "Lambeth Election Fête and Dinner" to celebrate his double victory. However, he spoke rarely in the House, devoting most of his energies to developing his property portfolio. He did speak on 25 June 1858, the year of The Great Stink
The Great Stink
The Great Stink, or the Big Stink, was a time in the summer of 1858 during which the smell of untreated human waste was very strong in central London.-Water supply and sanitation prior to the Great Stink:...
, to criticise sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
schemes that impacted his property. By the 1859 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1859
In the 1859 United Kingdom general election, the Whigs, led by Lord Palmerston, held their majority in the House of Commons over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives...
, the voters of Lambeth seemed largely to have forgotten, or rationalised, their distaste for William's ethics, and the re-elected him.
The Roupell case
By 1862, William was no longer able to service the mortgagesMortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
that he had taken out on the misappropriated property and on 30 March destroyed some of his papers and fled to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. In August, his brother Richard visited him in Spain and William returned to England. He was recognised and arrested for fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
and forgery.
Richard now initiated a sequence of court cases in the hope of restoring his fortune, firstly against Waite, who was now in possession of the Norbiton Estate.
William gave evidence for his brother, admitting the frauds and forgeries and his own perjury
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...
in the grant of probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
of his father's estate. It was to have been Waite's defence that William was colluding with his brother Richard, possibly in return for some compensation, but the defence was never heard as the case settled, dividing the value of the estate between Waite and Richard Roupell.
On 24 September 1862, William appeared at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
and pleaded guilty to the forgery. The judge, Mr Justice Byles
John Barnard Byles
Sir John Barnard Byles was a British barrister, judge and author of books on law and the economy. He published an influential text on bills of exchange in 1829, commonly referred to as "Byles on Bills".-Early life:...
, emphasising the seriousness of the offences, sentenced William to penal servitude for life
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
.
Release
William escaped penal transportationPenal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
to Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
because he was expected to be a witness in further trials. He spent much of his sentence in hard labour at the Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
. William was released on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
in September 1876. Richard spent the rest of his life attempting, largely unsuccessfully, to recover some of his lost furtune
Richard died in 1883, leaving William an annuity
Life annuity
A life annuity is a financial contract in the form of an insurance product according to which a seller — typically a financial institution such as a life insurance company — makes a series of future payments to a buyer in exchange for the immediate payment of a lump sum or a series...
of £52 per year, hardly enough to compensate for 14 years in gaol for perjoring himself in Richard's cause. William became, by all accounts, an amiable old man, involved in the church and charity work and an enthusiastic and able gardener. William died of heart failure and pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at a nursing home in Streatham Hill. In the end, fondly remembered, he was buried in the family vault at West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...
.