00024288 i ' 1 I the I I A siatic Society of Bombay | Towf-n MaM, Bombay, ® Digitized with financial assistance from the Government of Maharashtra on 19 September, 2016 LIVES OF EMINENT SERJEANTS-AT-LAW / r ' ‘ A t, ■*< (■; 1' ■ ■ > 1 \\ \ ' '-'’1'- l ;r L -*y ’i« v_ *■ ' y LIVES EMINENT 8ERJEANT8-AT-LAW OP THE ENGLISH BAB. BY HUMPHRY WILLIAM WOOLRYCH. Serjeant-at-Lavt. 24288 — IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. ■ ■■] LONDON: W m . h . ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. S.W. 1869. t’j'-o // ,v 00024288 00024288 L0KD0N!_L swx8 & s, Alo(orgate Street. LIVES OF EMINENT SERJEANTS. THE DARNALS. W hether Darnal, Darnel, or DameU, or even Darnall, according to various readings, these lawyers were of high promise. The elder was spoken of in 1700, amongst other gossip, by Luttrell, as the new Baron of the Exchequer, and actually, though incorrectly, named by him as such.* A classical pim is extant upon the name. Kett, or Horse Kett, as he was called at Oxford, from the resemblance which his head bore to that animal, was a master of the schools at Oxfoi’d, and with him was Mr. Dai’nell. The following line was immediately applied to these gentlemen:— “ Infclix Lolium, et steriles dominantur avenffi.” “ Oats and Davnol choke the rising corn.”’ Or rather, according to Covington, nascimtur. “ Nas- 1 “ Diary,’* voL iv. pp. 652, 653. Sir Salathiol Lovol, Recorclor of London, got the vacant place, '' Dryden*3 “ Pastorals," vol. v. p. 56.—“ Virg. Eclog.,*’ v. 37- yoL . II. 1 Limes OF EMPBNT SBHJEAKTS. «uiii'tur,” he observes, is fouaad:^ ¿¡H th e M SS.” A nd ’ he dhsthigudshes the ^vord “dornikiantur'' iaa th e “ dreorgÌGS,.” -where exactly the sa®ae passage appears, ■ b y i^eferriag th e ikist to“ Weeds giiow higdmongst th e Gora,” whereas, here the “ weeds are ^?owipgvmtmà of baadey.” * tS© ia Job: Goekle or darabl iastead o i barley. ' “ yirg. Buool. Eclog.,” y. 8Ì; .èovirigiton’é “ Georgies," i. Ifrli oaiis . unblcst,. and darnel dominocrs.-^Brydon’s “•Georgies,”. tó L ^ ip, (229, Sb again, “ Grid’s “ Fast.,” voi. i. p. 691. “ Bt careant loliis', oculos vitantibus agri. Kec stevilis eulto snrgat. avéna solo.” Lolium: Tares-A<vona: Wild' , •oats. ' -)a . SIR JOHN DARNAL, Senior. 8orjcaut-at-Law, 1692—King’s Serjeant, 1698. T he Darnal family were harnessed to the law. Thomas DarneU, Clerk of the Pipe, temp. Hen. VII., was buried in the Mercers’ Chapel, London, in 1515, 7 Hen. YIII. John Darnell, Clerk of the Pipe, was a Baron of the Exchequer, temp. Edw. VI. He died in 1549, John Darnell, of Hertingfordbury, was of the Mid­ dle Temple. Henry Darnell, of Bird’s Place, Essenden, Herts., was of Gray’s Inn.* “ Centum patriinonia,” according to Juvenal, “ cau- sidicorum,” But these are not all. John DamaU was a son of Ralph Darnall, of Essen* den and Loughton’s Hope, near Pembridge, Hereford* shire.® Little, however, is known of his early life. In 1680 Mr. Darnal became engaged in the trials for high treason during the tyranny of Oates and Dangerfield. He was assigned as counsel for Lord MS. “ Notes and Querias," 4. vol.«i. j,. 42. 456 LIVES OP EMINENT SERJEANTS. Castlemaine, with Jones and Saunders; but they do not appear to have taken an active part for the defence. The prisoner, however, was acquitted.* Nearly at the same time he Avas called upon to de­ fend Mr. Giles for an attempt to murder Edivard Arnold, Esq. The trial took place before the famous Jefireys, then Recorder. At this time the oflFence was only a misdemeanor, and counsel were, therefore, able to address the jury. An alibi was set up, and several witnesses appeared in support of it; but the juiy soon returned a verdict of guilty, upon which the sentence was, that the defendant should be three times pilloried, and fined £500, and, “ as a terror to all such villains,” should procure sureties for good behaviour during life. “ The celebrated case of Dammaree and Purchuse is familiar to all who have read the “ State Trials.” Upon that occasion Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Damal defended them; but the latter must not be confounded with the elder Sir John, who, had he been, engaged upon that occasion, ivould have taken precedence of Whitaker.^ ' “ State Trials,” t o I. vii. pp. 1084, 1112. “ “ State Trials,” vol. vii. pp. 1129, 1144, 1159. He appeared for the Crown, however, in several well-known and important cases. Against Fuller for several scandalous libels, p. 1702; “ State Trials,” vol. liv. p. 517; Ilaagen Swendsen for the abduction of Mrs. Rawlins, Id, p. 561; Tutchin for libel, Id. p. 1100; Denew and others for conspiracy and assault. Id. p. 903; Arnold for shooting at Lord Onslow, vol. xvi. p. 750; Major Oneby for murder, vol. xvii. p. 38. In all these cases there were verdicts of “ guilty.” “ “ State Trials,” vol. xv. pp. 521, 587, 627, 665. This Damal or Darnell was made a Serjeant in 1 Geo. I., 1714, whereas Sir John had the coif con- erred on him in 1692. SIR JOHN CARNAL, SENIOR. 457 On the 27th of April, 1692, Mr. Damal was called to the degree of the coif.^ In 1698, about January, he was made a King’s Sei’jeant.® In June of the next year he was knighted by King William at Kensing­ ton,® and in the same month he appeared as counsel for the Crown, to argue with Serjeant Wright the case of Knight and Burton for the false endorsement of Exchequer Bills.'* And he was again counsel asfauist Mr. Duncombe for a similar offence, but the defendant was acquitted.* In 1696 he defended Peter Cook for high treason, and, with Sir Bartholomew Shower, made a stout op­ position to the prosecution, both as to law and fact, and although he was not fortunate enough to suc­ ceed, liis client Avas pardoned on condition of trans­ portation.® It is much to the credit of Sir John that all those implicated in the conspiracy, who had been tried before ]\Ir. Cook, Avere executed. His legal reasonings and poAverful advocacy must have had Aveight Avith the Court, and, subsequently, arrested the execution. Sir John died in December, 1706,’ at his house in Essex.® He was buried on Friday, the 20th, in St. ' Wynne, p. 90. “ " The Law Eeports of Lord Raymond,” vol. i. p. 414.—Wynne, p. 91. ’ Luttrell’a “ Diary,” Tol. iv. p. 523. * Jd. p. 526. * “ State Trials,” vol. xiii. p. 1061. ‘ “ State Trials,” vol. xiii. pp, an ^ 393 ’ Luttrcll’s “ Diary,” vol. vi.'p. 137. « jjg 458 LIVES OP EMINENT SEEJEANTS. Clement Danes’ Church, in the chancel vault.* Ac­ cording to Luttrell, he had beeii dangerously ill in 1701.* In right of his Avife (Avith whose name we are not acquainted), he impaled a boar iiassant.® The character of Vagellius, in Garth’s “ Dispensary,” has been attributed to him, but it I'ather belongs to Sir Bartholomew Shower. Vagellius AVas a Roman laAvyer of Mutina, a city of the Lombards, noAV Modena. He seems to have been a reckless declairaer, by no means baffled by a cause at once bad, and even perilous. Garth thus celebrates the luAVyer:— ■ “ Since of each enterprise th’ event’s unknown, We ’ll quit the sword, and hearken to the gown ; Nigh lives Vagellius, one reputed long,^ For strength of lungs, and pliancy of tongue; For fees to any form he moulds a case, The worst has merits, and the best has flaw. Five guineas make a criminal to-day. And- ten to-morrow wipe the stain away ; To law then, friends, for ’tis by fate decreed, Vagellius and our money shall succeed.” * ' MS. Mr. Bridger, who refers to the English Post, Monday, December 23, 1706. ^ Luttrell, vol. V. 116. ■ ’ MS. Sir B. Shower. Bell’s “ Poets.” * “ The Dispensary,” canto iv. p. 156. But the “ Complete Key,” notes Daiual as the Vagellius. THOMAS CARTHEW. Seqeant-at-Law, 1700. [Tlie Author is indebted to Mr. Carthew, of MilBeld, East Dereham, Suffolk, for manj- interesting particulars concerning his eminent great grandfather.] Carthew, in Cornish, Cardu, or Carthu, has given a name to three places in Cornwall; Carthew in Madron, in St. Issey, and St. Austell.^ It signifies rock black.* Thomas Carthew was born at Cannalidgy, the family seat, in the parish of St. Issey, Cornwall, on the 4th of April, 1657. He was the eldest son of Thomas Carthew, of that place. “ Cannall Lidgye,” says Mr. Hals,^ “ was the voke lands of a considerable manor, now in several persons’ hands; much of those lands being in possession of Boscawen, as I take i t ; the high rents are in Hart. “ As part of the same, is the pos­ session and bu’th-place of my very kind fi’iend and neighbour, Thomas Carthew, Esq., barrister-at-law, who, by his indefatigable study and labour, first in the inferior practice of the law, under Mr. Tregena, with­ out being a perfect Latin grammarian, always using ' Burke’s “ Landed Gentry,” 1858, p. 182. ’ Gilbert’s “ Parochial History of Cornwall,” vol. ii. p. 255. Id. 460 LIVES OF EMINENT SERJEANTS. the English words for matters or things in his. decla­ rations, where he understood not the Latin.”* On the 23rd of November, 1698, he was admitted of the Inner Temple.® He arrived, however, at an eminence which, but for his early decease, would have secured for him a seat on the Judicial Bench. Carthew became a student at the Middle Temple on the 21st of May, 1683 : and on the 14th of June, 1686, he was called to the Bar^ by a mandamus from the Lord Keeper North.'* On the 7th of November, 1700, he was made a Scrjeant-at-Law,® and dui’ing his brief enjojnnent of the practice he derived through this creation, “ he grew into such gi-eat fame and reputation,” says Mr.