Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/391

 COLERIDGE 371 the offices of Lord Ch. Justice of the Common Pleas and of Lord Ch. Baron of the Exchequer,(*) both of which had previously been abolished, were shortly afterwards vested. He ;»., istly, ii Aug. 1846, at Fresh- water, Isle of Wight, Jane Fortescue,('') 3rd da. of the Rev. George Turner Seymour, of Farringford Hill, in that parish, by Marianne, only da. of John Billingsley, of Ashwick Grove, Somerset. She d. 6 Feb. 1878, of inflammation of the larynx, aged 53, at i Sussex Sq., Hyde Park, Midx., and was bur. at Ottery. M.l.(') He m.^ 2ndly, 13 Aug. 1885, (spec, lie.) at 42 Victoria Rd., Kensington, Midx., Amy Augusta Jackson,('^) took place, when, on 29 Nov. 1880 (44 Vict., pt. i, no. 27), the patent to Lord Coleridge granted him " the office of Lord Chief Justice of England," an office which apparently is the same (in style, though hardly in rank or substance) as that of the ancient '■'■ 'J uiticiar'im Angliie^'' held (last) by the famous Hugh le Despenser, slain I265.* Act 44 and 45 Vict., sec. 68 (passed 27 Aug. 1880), gave to the Lord Chief Justice of England all the powers formerly held by the L.C.J, of the Common Pleas and the L. C. Baron of the Exchequer. The abolition of the Court of the Common Pleas and of the Exchequer was recommended by a meeting of Judges 30 Nov., and carried out 16 Dec. 1880, by an Order of Council. The oath taken was the same as that of the previous Lord Chief Justices of the King's Bench, save that the words "in my office as Lord Chief Justice of England" were substituted (on what authority is unknown) for those of "in my office as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench." • Had the " yusticiarius Angl'iie " been then in existence, there is little doubt but that Henry VIII would have assigned him a place somewhat equivalent to that of the Lord Chancellor (whose rank was placed above that of all Dukes) and the other great officers to whom so high a precedence was accorded under the statute, 31 Hen. VIII. It certainly seems an anomaly that the precedence of " the Chief Justice of England" should be (no higher than was that of the Ch. Justice of the Queen's Bench, /.c.) below, not only all Peers, but even all sons of Peers (save only the younger sons of Viscounts and Barons), below, also, all Privy Councillors, and only next above the Master of the Rolls and the puisne Judges. G.E.C. On which J. H. Round makes the following criticism. "The high precedence of the Chancellor is due to the fact that he was always a cleric^ and, as such, in the 1 2th century, witnessed charters before all earls and barons. Nor can I attach the importance that you do to the mere 'change of style' in 1880. The medieval yusticiarius Anglia was rather a Viceroy than a Justice. As a Justice he would have ranked low in the I2th century." V.G. (^) This office had been vacant since the death of Ch. Baron Kelly, 1 7 Sep. 1880. (*") " Whose genius as an artist will be perpetuated by a likeness of Newman, incomparably superior, not only to that by Millais, but to any other." (Sir Mount- stuart Grant Duff's Notes from a Diary, 1898). There is a good portrait of her in oils painted by herself when aged ij, penes Lord Coleridge 19 13. V.G. ("=) The monument takes the form of a most beautiful recumbent figure. V.G. if-) She had supposed herself to have been previously married (at Retford, 30 June 1878) under Scottish law, to her cousin, but after living with him some years, and becoming desirous of a separation, she discovered that she had not fulfilled the legal requirements of residence, and though he offijred again to go through the proper form of marriage, she declined. " A pretty, graceful woman, who was an aflfectionate and devoted wife, and who made the last years of his life extraordinarily happy." (Lady St. Helier, Memories of Fifty Tears). V.G.