Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/48

42

NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vm. JULY 19, obtained definite information on this point. His name appears in the books of Trinity College, where he was entered as pensioner on 29 Nov., 1768, Mr. R. Watson—Richard Watson, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff—being his tutor. Next year he matriculated, and became a scholar of his college, but he did not graduate ('Rouse Ball, and Venn,' iii. 216). In 1770 he was entered at the Inner Temple, his father then being described as James Mingay of Gimingham, Norfolk, and he was called to the Bar in 1775.

For some short time Mingay drew pleadings under Charles Runnington ('D.N.B.'). When called he selected the Norfolk Circuit, and soon had a considerable share of work both in London and at sessions. Even at the Bar he was conspicuous among his contemporaries for cool assurance. He is described as commanding in figure and confident in manner; he was prompt and clear in speech, and conspicuous for readiness and adroitness in cross-examination. In his profession Mingay was second only to Erskine, who dreaded him more than any other competitor, and they were usually pitted against one another.

Mingay was created K.C. by patent dated 26 Nov., 1784, -and appeared the same evening before the Lord Chancellor at his house in Great Ormond Street, when he took the oaths of allegiance and supre- macy kneeling, and the oath of office stand- ing (information furnished by Sir Kenneth Muir Mackenzie, K.C.). He became a Bencher of his Inn in 1785, was Reader in 1790, and Treasurer in 1791. In 1788 he was elected Recorder of Aldborough ; he was. by special commission dated 29 April, 1800, made a Justice of the Peace for Thetford, and he acted as Chairman of Quarter Sessions for Norfolk and Suffolk for many years. Mingay was often a Special Commissioner at the Thetford Assizes, and he was three times Mayor of Thetford (1798-9, 1800-1, and 1804-5). A summary of his speech on his first election as mayor is in Pratt's ' Gleanings in England,' ii. 252-3 (1801). During that same occasion the freedom of the borough was bestowed on Lord Nelson. The gift dated 13 Oct., 1798, and signed J. Mingay, is in the painted hall at Greenwich Hospital, but the actual presentation did not take place until 1800.

A versified exemplification by John Baynes (of Gray's Inn, d. 1787) of the proceedings in the Court of King's Bench on examination of bail, in which Mingay

took part, is given in The European Magazine for 1787, ii. 140, and reprinted in Hone's ' E very-day Book.' vol. i., sub 23 Jan. Crabb Robinson (' Diary/ 1872 ed., i. 9-10) chronicles a case at Colchester in, the Spring Assizes of 1791, in which Mingay was engaged against Erskine. and describes- Mingay as " loud and violent." His ad vice- to Mr. Fosset, the distiller, who was con- victed for dealing in adulterated spirits,, and thought of applying for a new trial,, is printed in The Monthly Mirror for July, 1797. He recommended his client to

" rest where he was lest the jury on fuller proof should clap another per centage upon the run goods without any draw-back from the new duty for waste or leakage."

This advice, it must be confessed, has lost by this time whatever spirit it once had. One of his jests at the expense of Erskine- is set out in W. C. Townsend's ' Twelve Eminent Judges,' i. 438, and Lord Campbell (' Lives of the Lord Chancellors,' vi. 679) says that Erskine lacked the " coarse humour of Mingay." He " once made- 5000 guineas " (Crabb Robinson, ' Diary,' i. 325). an enormous sum for a professional man at the Bar about 1780.

Mingay's politics in early life were those of the Whig Party. In 1794 he detested " the then calamitous war with France," and when Windham, as Secretary at War, stood for re-election at Norwich in July of that year, his name was put forward in opposition. He was only nominated the- day before the election, and was not present in the city, but he polled 770 votes against 1,236 which were cast for the Minister. There appeared a few days after the contest

" An Address to the Electors of Norwich, being a Vindication of the Principles and Conduct of Mr. Windham's Opponents. . . .With an Appendix containing a Letter from J. Mingay." 2nd ed. Norwich (1794).

The letter was addressed to Mr. William Firth of Norwich, and in it Mingay said that he was not eligible for election. " The place I have long held disqualified me to sit in parliament." This was probably the place of " Customer " at Bridgwater (' Uni- versal British Directory for 1793 ').

In a few years Windham and he were united in politics. He stood for Thetford on 4 Nov., 1806, and the return at the poll was : Lord William Fitzroy, 18 votes ; Mingay, 17 ; and Thomas Creevey, 14 votes- A petition was presented to Parliament, and the Whig Creevey was seated (4 Feb., 1807). A letter from Mingay to Thomas Amyot, Windham's secretary, dated 26 Oct.,.