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Samuel Romilly

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by Baldwin Hamey in plaque

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Tags

law, politics

detail plaque Romilly

When walking in Russell Square, I noticed a plaque between two windows on one of the houses on the north side of the square which reads ‘Here lived Sir Samuel Romilly law reformer born 1757 died 1818’. I took a photo of the plaque and of the nice boot scraper by the doorway, but several double-decker busses had parked in front of the house preventing me from taking a photo of the whole house. A leisurely walk around the square did not help; they were still there after 20 minutes, so the picture of the house has been borrowed from Google Street View.

Romilly 21 Russell square

21 Russell Square from Google Street View

21 Russell Square (Source: Google Street View)

Boot scraper 21 Russell square

But who was this Samuel Romilly who had lived in this house? Obviously a lawyer as the plaque already stated, but that was not much help. Some biographical information was, however easily found.(1) He was born on the 3rd of March, 1757 as the son of Peter Romilly and Margaret Garnault, both of Huguenot descent. Peter was a jeweller and Samuel was to work in his father’s shop after an initial job in a merchant’s firm came to nothing because of the death of the two owners. But Samuel was not really interested in jewellery and preferred reading. He read voraciously, reading all kinds of books to broaden his knowledge and writing skills. At one point he decided to become a poet, but later realised that prose suited him better. In 1773, a wealthy family relation died and Samuel was left £2,000 which enabled him to give up his jewellers’ job and to study for the post of officer of the Court of Chancery. He probably chose this profession because it would allow him plenty of time to pursue his literary interests. He studied under William Lally, one of the officers of the Court of Chancery. The officers did not really have to do much, most of the real work was done by the solicitors of the litigants. The working hours were short and attendance during the holidays was not necessary, so it was an ideal post for one aspiring to a literary career. But this literary career never really materialised and after completing his articles, Samuel went on to study for the Bar at Gray’s Inn under the tutelage of Jeffries Spranger. London Remembers shows the building where he occupied chambers and where there is another plaque commemorating him (see here).

After a bout of illness, Samuel went to Switzerland to take his young nephew Peter Mark Roget (he of later Thesaurus fame) back to his parents. Samuel’s sister Catherine had married the Swiss-born minister of a French Protestant church in London, Jean Roget, but when Jean was ordered by his doctor to return to his native country for his health – he had consumption – the young child was left in London in the care of his grandfather. But when Jean’s health seemed to improve, they wanted their son with them and Samuel provided the escort to Lausanne for the child and his nurse. While in France and Switzerland, Samuel had ample opportunity to learn more of the modern way of thinking as pronounced in Rousseau’s Social Contract. He met various leaders of the democratic movement in Geneva and later also of the literary and political circles in Paris. The discrepancy between the glamorous gaiety of the French court and the squalid conditions of the ordinary people struck a cord and he wrote “It is not more surprising that a people ignorant of liberty are contented with servitude, than that a man blind from his birth laments not the want of the most delightful of the senses”.(2)

portrait by W. Finden after T. Lawrence ©BM

Portrait of Samuel Romilly by William Finden after Sir Thomas Lawrence ©British Museum

On June 2nd, 1783, Romilly was called to the Bar, but before he could start his career, he had to go to Switzerland once again to fetch his sister, now a widow, and his nephew home. On his way there, he had the opportunity to visit Benjamin Franklin in Paris, at that time the ambassador of the US to France. Franklin read him parts of the Constitution that had just been published, much to the surprise of Franklin who had expected the French government to suppress them. Brother-in-law Roget had been a great friend of Romilly with whom he corresponded frequently and freely and he missed him dearly, but he soon became friends with a Swiss advocate, D’Ivernois, whom Romilly had met when taking his nephew to Switzerland and who was now living in England. D’Ivernois introduced him to the French Comte de Mirabeau who in turn was to introduce Romilly to William Wilberforce and Jeremy Bentham. These two men were campaigning for causes that were close to Romilly’s heart and in 1787 he joined the committee for the abolition of slavery.

Illustration from Drake

Illustration from Drake

Romilly was not really a dedicated lawyer in the sense that it absorbed all his energy, but he did use his profession to improve the condition of men as he saw it. This commitment made him slide into politics, but there again, he was not a political animal per se and frequently neglected opportunities that could have brought him further in the political hierarchy. He took his seat in the House of Commons on 24 March 1806. Although his name is now mostly forgotten and certainly not as well known as that of Wilberforce or Bentham, he did play his part against the slave trade in a speech of 10 June 1806 in which he called that trade ‘robbery, rapine, and murder’. He also did his best to reform criminal law, especially in the area of corporal and capital punishment. He supported a bill to abolish the pillory and one to stop flogging in the military and preferred prisons modelled on the principles of Bentham to penal colonies. In 1808 he obtained the repeal of the 8 Eliz. I c. 4 (1565), resulting in pick-pocketing no longer seen as a capital offence. Not all his efforts were successful; he did, for instance, not manage to get the capital punishment sentence on theft to the value of 40s lifted, but his bill to amend the Bankruptcy Laws was passed very quickly.(3)

Morning Chronicle 3 Nov. 1818

The Morning Chronicle 3 Nov. 1818

Romilly married late in life. At the age of 40 he married Anne Garbette on 3 January 1798 at Knill, Herefordshire. The couple moved into 54 Gower Street, but relocated to 21 Russell Square where they spent the rest of their lives apart from the holidays when they moved to Tanhurst, Surrey, where they rented a property from 1812 onwards. The couple had seven children, six sons and one daughter, and appear to have had a very loving relationship. Unfortunately, the story does not end happily as Anne became ill and died on 29 October 1818. Romilly was distraught from grief and when left alone for a few minutes, killed himself a few days later by cutting his throat ‘while in a state of temporary mental derangement’. They were buried together in the parish church of Knill on 11 November. The details of the sad event were described in all the major papers of the day. On the left the report in The Morning Chronicle.

Joseph Cradock wrote this poem on hearing of Romilly’s death(4):

Yes, Romilly is dead! – an awful pause
Chilly has struck the generous patriot’s cause;
‘T is but a dream – the morn’s distempered thought,
With which the public mind is inly fraught;
I scarce can dare to think, yet think I must,
I feel I’m weak, but know that God is just;
Grant, heaven, like him I act the tenderest part;
But not like him, die stricken to the heart!

(1) A short biography appeared in Samuel Adams Drake, Our World’s Great Benefactors. Short biographies of the men and women most eminent in philanthropy, patriotism, art, literature, discovery, science, invention (1887), pp. 129-134. A book-length biography was written by Patrick Medd, Romilly. A Life of Sir Samuel Romilly, Lawyer and Reformer (1968). And he has also made it into the ODNB: R. A. Melikan, ‘Romilly, Sir Samuel (1757–1818)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008; and of course he is mentioned on the History of Parliament website here. Romilly’s Memoirs have also been published, see Google Books Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3.
(3) Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 177. Letter to Jean Roget, written from Ostend 10 Nov. 1781.
(3) For a more detailed list of his political achievements, see the History of Parliament website.
(4) Joseph Cradock, Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, vol. 4 (1828), p. 324.

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Serjeants Inn

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Baldwin Hamey in building

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

coat of arms, Fleet Street, insurance, law

Although the iron gates at 50 Fleet Street clearly show the words ‘Serjants Inn’, the dove and serpent above the wording have nothing to do with the former lawyer’s inn, other than consecutively using the same address. Serjeants Inn, Fleet Street, was originally one of the addresses from which members of the Serjeants-at-law conducted their business, the other was in Chancery Lane. In the 1730s, the Fleet Street lease was not renewed and the serjeants all moved to Chancery Lane. In 1737, the lease was taken over by the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office (the Amicable Society for short) who erected a new building on the site in 1792/3, designed by Robert Adam (1728-1792).

Engraving by Samuel Rawle, 1801

Engraving by Samuel Rawle, 1801 ©British Museum

In The European Magazine, and London Review of 1801, the above engraving of the new building in Fleet Street is given as well as an account of the history and regulations of the insurance corporation:

“Queen Anne, by letters patent, dated 25th July 1706, incorporated William [Talbot], then Bishop of Oxford, Sir Thomas Aleyn, and others named, and the future subscribers, by the name of the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office”.(1)

In fact, the society was the brainchild of John Hartley, a bookseller in Fleet Street. The printing press was put to good use in advertising the new assurance society, for instance, in the anonymous Letter from a Member of the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance; giving his Friend an Account of That Society, as it now stands Incorporated by Her Majesty’s Letters Patent of 1706. The author says that the original “design has undergone many material alterations, since the first proposals were publish’d by Mr. Hartley”, but if his friend wanted to know every particular, he must wait for the by-laws that were in the process of getting accepted.(2)

Source: scripophily.com

1792 receipt for payment of contribution (Source: scripophily.com)

In the original plan a maximum of 2,000 members were to pay £7 6s for a policy and £6 4s annually. Members could hold up to three shares on one life. The funds thus collected were divided among those eligible for a payout “at an equal rate per share, with only such reserve as is necessary for defraying the charges of management”. The European Magazine assures the public that “on inspecting the accounts of the dividends for many years past, the average share appears to have amounted to about 200l”. If anyone wanted to have information, they could go the Society’s office which was open every day from 9 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon “where books containing the Charters, Regulations, and Names of the Members, may be had on application”. So much for privacy. But things did not always go as smoothly as suggested in the European Magazine account. In the early years, a clerk embezzled some £1,700; in 1713, the treasurer walked away with £6,500; and in 1830, the manager of the society absconded with the funds.(3)

Serjeants InnThe reason for the dove and serpent in the coat of arms of the Amicable Society have been forgotten, but they were already carved above the door of their Hatton Garden office in 1716. The motto is Prudens simplicitas (careful simplicity) which would be a great motto for modern-day bankers to adopt.

Coat of arms

Coat of arms (Source: Aviva.com)

The original maximum of 2,000 members, was gradually increased; in 1790 to 4,000, in 1807 to 8,000 and in 1836 to 32,000. The set price per share was also abandoned in the new charter of 1807, premiums now depended on age and circumstances, something other insurance companies had already introduced earlier. In 1866, the Society merged into the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society, now part of Aviva and they moved their London offices to 50 Fleet Street. In 1912, the road was widened and during the rebuilding, the gates were lost. They were rediscovered in a scrapyard in 1937 and taken to the Norwich Union head office in Norwich, which proved to have been a blessing, as in WWII the Fleet Street buildings were destroyed. The gates were reinstalled in London in 1959 and moved to their present location in 1970. The gates now lead to a fancy hotel, but the link with the Serjeant Inn is not entirely lost. A group of solicitors have set up a barrister’s chambers, 3 Serjeants’ Inn, at 50 Fleet Street.(4) They are in no way related to the original Serjeants-at-law, but it is still a nice thought that the legal origins of the place and the connection with the Amicable Society are not completely forgotten.

Serjeants Inn

(1) Volume 40, July 1801, pp. 7-8.
(2) British Library, shelfmark 8225.e.46.
(3) www.aviva.com
(4) 3serjeantsinn.com. Information on the fate of the gates from their website.

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