William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, , was a British judge, politician, lawyer, and peer best known for his reforms to English law. Born in Scone Palace, Perthshire, to a family of Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth before moving to London at the age of 13 to study at Westminster School. Accepted into Christ Church, Oxford, in May 1723, Mansfield graduated four years later and returned to London, where he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in November 1730 and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent barrister.
He became involved in British politics in 1742, beginning with his election to the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge and appointment as Solicitor General. In the absence of a strong Attorney General, Mansfield became the main spokesman for the government in the House of Commons, where he was noted for his "great powers of eloquence" and was described as "beyond comparison the best speaker". With the promotion of Sir Dudley Ryder to Lord Chief Justice in 1754, Mansfield became Attorney General and, when Ryder unexpectedly died several months later, he took his place as Chief Justice.
As the most powerful British jurist of the 18th century, Mansfield's decisions reflected the Age of Enlightenment and moved the country onto the path to abolishing slavery. He advanced commercial law in ways that helped establish Britain as world leader in industry, finance, and trade; modernised both English law and England's courts; rationalised the system for submitting motions, and reformed the way judgments were delivered to reduce expense for the parties. For his work in Carter v Boehm and Pillans v Van Mierop, Mansfield has been called the founder of English commercial law.
Mansfield is also known for his judgment in Somerset v Stewart where he held that slavery had no basis in common law and had never been established by positive law in England, and therefore was not binding in law. Though the judgement did not explicitly outlaw slavery in either England or British colonies, it played an important role in the early stages of the British abolitionist movement and inspired challenges to slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.
Early life and education
Murray was born on 2 March 1705, at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland, the fourth son of David Murray, 5th Viscount of Stormont and his wife Margaret as one of eleven children. Both his parents were strong supporters of the Jacobite cause, and his older brother James followed the "Old Pretender" into exile, this left the family's finance relatively impoverished. The Jacobite sympathies of Murray's family were glossed over by contemporaries, who claimed that he had been educated at Lichfield Grammar School with many other members of the English judiciary. This was incorrect, as Murray was educated at Perth Grammar School, where he was taught Latin, English grammar, and essay writing skills. He later said that this gave him a great advantage at university, as those students educated in England had been taught Greek and Latin but not how to write properly in English. While at Perth Grammar School, it became apparent that Murray was particularly intelligent. In 1718, his father and older brother, James, decided to send him to Westminster School as James knew the Dean, Francis Atterbury.Thirteen year old Murray travelled alone with a pony given by his father, The distance from Perth to London was around, and the journey took Murray 54 days. Murray flourished at Westminster and was made a King's Scholar on 21 May 1719.After an examination in May 1723, Murray was accepted into Christ Church, Oxford, having scored higher in the examination than any other King's Scholar that year. He was admitted as a commoner on 15 June 1723, and matriculated on 18 June. The records say that he came from Bath rather than Perth, as the person recording the names of the new students was unable to understand his Scottish accent. His older brother, James, was an advocate in Scotland, and his family decided that a career as a barrister was best for Murray. The Scottish Bar at the time was overcrowded, which made it difficult for a young barrister to build a reputation, yet qualifying for the English Bar was extremely expensive. Thanks to the patronage of Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley, who gave Murray £200 a year to live on, Murray could afford to study at the bar, and he became a member of Lincoln's Inn on 23 April 1724.
After George I died on 11 June 1727, Murray entered and won a competition to write a Latin poem titled "The Death of the King". His actions were seen as a show of support for the House of Hanover and the political status quo, something odd considering the strong Jacobite sympathies of his family. He probably did this because, having no private income, he wished to secure patronage to help him advance politically. Another entrant was William Pitt, who was a constant rival to Murray until Pitt's death in 1778. There is very little information about Murray's time at Oxford. It is known that he studied ancient and modern history, became fluent in French, and gained a good understanding of Roman Law. He also became fluent in Latin, translating Cicero's works into English and then back into Latin. He gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1727, and travelled to London to train as a barrister.
Family life
Murray married Lady Elizabeth Finch in 1738, youngest daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea and Anne Hatton. She had thirteen siblings and her dowry was £5000.They had no children of their own, but took care of their great niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, the daughter of Mansfield's nephew and heir, David Murray, 7th Viscount Stormont, after her mother died. When Mansfield's other nephew, Sir John Lindsay, returned to Britain in 1765 following the Seven Years' War and his assignment in the West Indies, he brought his illegitimate daughter, Dido, whose mother, Maria Bell, was an enslaved woman of African descent. Dido was born into slavery in 1761. Dido Elizabeth Belle was baptized November 1766 in London, 8 months after Lady Elizabeth's arrival. It has been hypothesized that Mansfield took Dido in to provide grieving Lady Elizabeth with a companion who would later be her personal attendant.
Mansfield also helped mentor his nephew and heir, David Murray, 7th Viscount Stormont. Later, his nieces and unmarried sisters of Lord Stormont, Lady Anne and Lady Marjory Murray, would come to live at Kenwood to care for Lord and Lady Mansfield in their old age.
At the English bar
Murray's first contact when he moved to London was William Hamilton, a Scottish-born barrister who was said to be the first Scot to practise at the English Bar, and one of the few people who was qualified to act as a barrister in both England and Scotland. Hamilton had been one of Murray's sponsors when he joined Lincoln's Inn in 1724 and, when Murray came to London, Hamilton helped find him a set of barristers' chambers at No. 1 Old Square. There was no formal legal education at this time, and the only requirement for a person to be called to the Bar was for him to have eaten five dinners a term at Lincoln's Inn, and to have read the first sentence of a paper prepared for him by the steward. Thus, most of Murray's practical training came from reading the papers in Hamilton's chambers, and listening to Lord Raymond speak in court along with tutoring by Thomas Denison on how to write special pleadings. Murray also studied various texts, including the French Ordinance de la Marine, the works of Bracton and Littleton, and "crabbed and uncouth compositions" on municipal law.Murray was called to the Bar on 23 November 1730, taking a set of chambers at 5 King's Bench Walk. He was introduced to Alexander Pope around this time, and through his friendship met members of the aristocracy, some of whom later became his clients, including Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Pope also taught him oratory, which helped him enormously in court. His first two cases were in the English Court of Sessions in 1733, where he was led by Charles Talbot and opposed by Philip Yorke. The support of Talbot and Yorke allowed him to gain a respectable practice in the Court of Chancery.
Murray used his first professional earnings to purchase a china and silver-plate tea set for his kind sister in-law, Lady Stormont. Lady Stormont may have provided Murray with some financial support while he was a law student, on top of sending him food packages, including his favorite Scottish marmalade, when he was a young lawyer.
The 1707 Acts of Union had merged the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into one national entity, but they retained separate legal systems. However, the House of Lords became the highest court of appeal in both English and Scottish law and, as a result, from 1707 Scottish cases on appeal from the Court of Session were sent there. A barrister had to be familiar with both Scottish and English law to deal with these cases, and Murray found his niche acting in Scottish cases in the House of Lords as early as 1733. His work in Moncrieff v Moncrieff in 1734 established Murray as a brilliant young barrister praised for his performance by Lords Cowper and Parker. After Moncrieff, Murray was involved in almost every case in the House of Lords, whether it had been appealed from a Scottish court or not.
In 1737, Murray acted as Counsel for the City of Edinburgh in the aftermath of the death of Captain John Porteous. In Edinburgh, it was traditional for criminals sentenced to death to be allowed to visit a church near the city jail the Sunday before the execution. Two criminals named Wilson and Robertson took this as an opportunity to escape; although Wilson did not make it out of the church, Robertson escaped completely. Wilson had been a smuggler who supplied his fellow citizens with goods and, because of this and the unpopularity of the city guard, public opinion was firmly on his side. Porteous was the captain of the Edinburgh city guard, and was angry with Wilson's attempt to escape and aware of the possibility of an attempt to free him. Porteous ordered a guard of 80 men to be placed around the gallows for Wilson's execution. When a man attempted to cut Wilson's body down after the execution, Porteous ordered his troops to fire on the crowd, and seven people were killed. Porteous was initially sentenced to death for murder and, when the execution was delayed, a mob of citizens rushed the city jail and lynched him.
As a result, a bill was proposed in the House of Commons that sought to punish the City of Edinburgh for the behaviour of its citizens by disenfranchising the city. Murray represented the City in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and eventually whittled down the bill so much that, by the time it was voted on, it simply proposed to fine the city and disqualify the Provost. In exchange for his work, the citizens of Edinburgh gave him the Freedom of the City and a diamond, which is still in the possession of his family. Murray's reputation continued to grow; in 1738, he was involved in 11 of the 16 cases heard in the House of Lords, and in 1739 and 1740 he acted as legal counsel in 30 cases there.
On 20 September 1738, he married Lady Elizabeth Finch, the daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea and Anne Hatton, at Raby Castle, home of her sister Duchess of Cleveland in Durham. Her other sisters included Charlotte Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, Mary Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, and Lady Mary who was married to Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham. Some of the aristocrats thought that the bride had married way below her status, and they also accused the groom of social climbing into one of the great English families which the Finches belonged to. Indeed, Mansfield's marriage helped him be accepted by the highest level of the aristocracy. Murray's connection with the Marquess of Rockingham especially had a significant positive influence on his future career. After a short holiday, Murray returned to his work as a barrister.