Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/90



Admitted 12 February, 1765.

Only son of Thomas Day of Great Marley, Essex, who was a Collector of Customs in the Port of London. He was born 22 June, 1748, in Wellclose Square, London. He is best known as the author of Sandford and Merton. Though called to the Bar 14 May, 1775, he never practised his profession, but devoted himself to schemes of philanthropy, always benevolent but often whimsical. He held peculiar views on the subject of the education of men and the treatment of animals; was an ardent anti-slavery advocate and a zealous upholder of the cause of the American colonists, in support of which he employed his pen and tongue. He fell a victim to his own theory as to the training of animals, dying from the kick of a colt, Sept. 28, 1789.

The following are his works: The Dying Negro (1773); The Devoted Legions: a Poem against the American War (1776); The Desolation of America: a Poem (1777); Letters of Marius, or Reflections upon the Peace (1784); Reflections on the present state of England and the Independence of America (1782); Letter on the Slavery of the Negroes; Letter to Arthur Young on the Wool Bill (1788); The History of Sandford and Merton (1783—9); The History of Little Jack (1788); Ode for the New Year (Anon.), 1776. '

DEERING. See DERING.

Admitted 26 January, 1737-8.

Second son of Thomas De Grey, M.P., of Merton, Norfolk, where he was born on 7 July, 1719. He was educated at Cambridge, entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar 26 Nov. 1742. He was made King's Counsel in 1758, and entering Parliament, became Attorney-General in 1766, and was knighted. As occupant of that office, it fell to him to conduct the proceedings in the famous trial of John Wilkes, on the question of his outlawry in 1768. He was appointed Reader at the Inn in 1765, and elected Treasurer in the following year. In 1771 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, from which office his health obliged him to retire in 1780, when he was called to the Upper House under the title of Lord Walsingham. He died in the following year, 1781.

Admitted 15 January, 1839.

Second son of William Frederick Augustus Delane, Barrister, of Earl Street, Blackfriars. He was born in London 11 Oct. 1817. He was called to the Bar 28 May, 1847. His father was financial manager to the Times, and young Delane became employed on the staff of that journal, and at the early age of twenty-three succeeded Mr. Barnes in its editorship (1841), which post he held for thirty-six years with remarkable ability and success. "The influence of the Times during his management," it has been stated, "can hardly be exaggerated, and as compared with the present state of the Press, can hardly be conceived." He retired from the editorship through failing health in 1877, and died at his house near Ascot 22 Nov. 1879.