Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/238



Admitted 9 January, 1758.

Third son of John Scott of Mohubber, co. Tipperary. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and called to the Irish Bar in 1765. In 1770 he became a King's Counsel, and two years later Counsel to the Revenue Board. In this position it fell to his lot to defend the Government against the attacks of Flood and the popular party, and for this service in 1774 he was made Solicitor-General, and Attorney-General and a Privy Councillor three years later. For some speeches, however, in 1781, inconsistent with his position, he was dismissed from office by the Duke of Portland, but on the fall of that minister was restored to favour, and in 1784 appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and raised to the Peerage by the title of Baron Earlsfort, and later Viscount and Earl of Clonmell. He died 23 May, 1798.

Admitted 28 January, 1773.

Third son of William Scott of Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was born on 4 June, 1751. He was educated at Newcastle Grammar School, and at University College, Oxford, where his brother William (q.v.), afterwards Lord Stowell, was Fellow and Tutor. There he himself became Fellow in 1767, but running away with and marrying Elizabeth Surtees of Newcastle in 1772, he was, of course, obliged to give up his Fellowship, and at the same time to relinquish his hope of provision in the Church. Hence his resolution to apply himself to the law. He was called to the Bar on 9 Feb. 1 776, but obtained no great success in his profession till the year 1780, when his able advocacy in the case of Ackroyd v. Smithson attracted attention, and brought him briefs. In the same year he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, but on 20 June, 1783, he was elected Bencher of this Inn, appointed Reader in 1792, and Treasurer in 1797. Entering Parliament in 1783 he distinguished himself as an able supporter of Mr. Pitt's ministry, became Solicitor-General in 1788, and Attorney-General five years after.

In the latter position it was his lot to conduct the prosecution of Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall for high treason, and to prepare and support measures deemed necessary for the suppression of seditious writings and other political offences. In 1799, on the death of Sir James Eyre, he was advanced to the Chief Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas, receiving at the same time his patent as Baron Eldon; and in 1801 accepted the Great Seal, which he held with one short intermission from that time to 30 April, 1827, when he resigned it, and was succeeded by Lord Lyndhurst. He was created an Earl in 1821. He survived his retirement eleven years, dying 13 Jan. 1838.

Lord Eldon's decisions may be found in the Reports of Rose, Swanston, and Vesey, jun.

Admitted 24 June, 1762.

Eldest son of William Scott of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and brother of John Scott, Lord Eldon (q.v.). He was born 18 Oct. 1745, at Heworth in Durham, a village to which his mother hastily removed (let down over the wall in a basket) on the approach of the Scottish rebels to Newcastle in that year. He was educated at the Grammar School at Newcastle, and subsequently at University and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, where he became Fellow and