THIRD LIBRARY.
EDWARD, FIRST LORD THURLOW.By Sir Joshua Reynolds.BORN 1732, DIED 1806.Full length. In Chancellor’s robes.
EDWARD, FIRST LORD THURLOW.By Sir Joshua Reynolds.BORN 1732, DIED 1806.Full length. In Chancellor’s robes.
EDWARD, FIRST LORD THURLOW.
By Sir Joshua Reynolds.
BORN 1732, DIED 1806.
Full length. In Chancellor’s robes.
SON of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow of Ashfield, county Suffolk, by Elizabeth Smith. He went to Cambridge, but left it before taking his degree, studying too little, and amusing himself too much. He then proceeded to London to read law, but took part in all the pleasures and dissipations of the town. One time, when opposed to the famous lawyer, Sir Fletcher Norton, he completely worsted his eminent antagonist, which was esteemed a great feat in one so young to the legal profession. But what brought him into prominent notice, and gave him the silk gown, was the able manner in which he conducted the case of Archibald Douglasversusthe Duke of Hamilton, which made a great noise at the time.
It was by the merest chance that Thurlow was consulted in the matter. Two lawyers belonging to the counsel were conversing together over the matter at a fashionable coffee-house, where Thurlow passed a great deal too much of his time.They came to the conclusion, that a clear and elaborate statement of the facts of the case in question, must be carefully drawn up, a labour to which they were both averse. They accordingly proposed to young Thurlow, at that moment idling in the bar with the pretty maid, to undertake the task. He did so, and executed the work with so much talent and ability, that he was retained for the defence, and was the chief instrument in gaining his client’s cause. This brought him into great notice, and gained him, amongst others, the patronage of Lord Weymouth, then in the Administration, who brought him into Parliament.
Solicitor-General in 1770, and Attorney-General in 1771, he was a firm supporter of Lord North’s Administration, and spoke so eloquently on the Ministerial side when the American war broke out, that he was created Lord Thurlow of Ashfield, and next day Lord High Chancellor.
On taking his seat in the House of Lords, the Duke of Grafton made some slighting remark on the obscurity of the Thurlow family, to which the new Peer, although owning the truth of this assertion, retorted in so cutting a manner, with an allusion to the bar sinister in the Ducal coat of arms, as turned the laugh completely against his Grace.
Lord Thurlow retained the Great Seal till turned out by the Cornwallis Ministry, but on Pitt becoming Premier he was reinstated in office. In 1793-4 his opinions were so adverse to those of the Government, that he tendered his resignation, and never returned to office. He still, however, continued to take great interest in public affairs during the remainder of his life, frequenting, and often speaking in the House of Lords. Eloquent, energetic, just, severe, at times morose, he was unpopular (socially speaking) with the members of the legal profession.
Lord Thurlow was a man of pleasure, but a scholar, a patron of literature and the arts, though sometimes accused ofbestowing benefits in an ungracious manner. He never married, and his honours devolved on his brother, the Bishop of Durham. He left three natural daughters, to two of whom he bequeathed good fortunes, and to the other only a scanty pittance, in consequence of her having made a marriage which displeased him. On his retirement he gave himself up to literary pursuits, translating the classics, and writing fugitive pieces on various subjects; and in a high-flown dedication of his poem, ‘The Doge’s Daughter,’ to Lord Eldon, he extols the efficacy of ‘the light and cheerful airs of poesy’ as ‘medicine for the mind.’ There seems little doubt he derived great amusement from his own poetical effusions, whatever his readers may have done.