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William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell

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Lord Stowell. (William Owen)

William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell(17 October 1745 – 28 January 1836) was anEnglishjudge and jurist. He served asJudge of the High Court of Admiraltyfrom 1798 to 1828.

Background and education[edit]

Scott was born atHeworth,a village about four miles fromNewcastle upon Tyne,the son of a tradesman engaged in the transport of coal. His younger brotherJohn ScottbecameLord Chancellorand was madeEarl of Eldon.He was educated atNewcastle Royal Grammar SchoolandCorpus Christi College, Oxford,where he gained a Durham scholarship in 1761. In 1764 he graduated and became first a probationary fellow and then as successor to William (afterwards the well knownSir William) Jones a tutor ofUniversity College.AsCamden reader of ancient historyhe rivalled the reputation ofBlackstone.Although he had joined theMiddle Templein 1762, it was not till 1776 that Scott devoted himself to a systematic study oflaw.[1]

In 1783 he dined at Boyd's Inn (aka the White Horse Inn) on St Mary's Wynd with DrSamuel Johnsonon his visit to Edinburgh.[2]

Legal, political and judicial career[edit]

Scott graduated as doctor of civil law, and, after a customary year of silence[citation needed],commenced practice in theecclesiastical courts.His professional success was rapid. In 1783 he became registrar of the court of faculties, and in 1788 judge of the consistory court and advocate-general, in that year too receiving the honour ofknighthood;and in 1798 he was made judge of thehigh court of admiralty.[1]In this capacity he heard on appeal two important cases having to do with the abolition of the slave trade.

On 22 May 1809HMSCrocodiletookDonna Mariannaon the Cape Coast for breach of theAct for the abolition of the slave trade.TheVice admiralty courtat Sierra Leone condemned the vessel. AlthoughDonna Mariannawas ostensibly a Portuguese vessel, Scott upheld the seizure on the grounds that she was actually a British vessel and her Portuguese papers were a fraud.[3]

The second case involved the French shipLe Louis(1816) after it had been seized by theWest Africa Squadronfor slave trading off the African coast atCape Mesurado.HMSQueen Charlottehad originally vindicated the seizure and confiscation of the ship and cargo. However Scott overturned this judgement, saying that the wayLe Loishad been stopped and boarded was illegal as "No nation can exercise a right of visitation and search on the common and unappropriated parts of the sea, save only on the belligerent claim." He accepted that this would constitute a serious impediment to the suppression of the slave trade, but argued that this should be remedied through international treaties rather than Naval officers exceeding what they were permitted to do.[4]: 3–4 

He twice contestedOxford Universityin 1780 without success, but successfully in 1801. He also sat forDowntonin 1790.[1]He was elected aFellow of the Royal Societyin 1793.[5]

Upon the coronation ofGeorge IVin 1821 he was raised to the peerage asBaron Stowell,ofStowell Parkin the County of Gloucester,[6]taking his title from the name of his estate. After a life of judicial service Lord Stowell retired from the bench – from the consistory court in August 1821, and from the high court of admiralty in December 1827.[1]

Personal life[edit]

Lord Stowell married twice. His first marriage, in 1781, was to Anna Maria, eldest daughter and heiress of John Bagnall ofErleighCourt, nearReading,inBerkshire,where the two later resided. They had four children, one of whom, a daughter, survived him. He married again, in 1813, the dowagerMarchioness of Sligo,née Louisa Catharine Howe, younger daughter ofthe first and last Earl Howe of the 1788 creation,widow ofJohn Browne, 1st Marquess of Sligo.[7]

He died on 28 January 1836 at Erleigh Court, aged 90, and the barony became extinct.

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdChisholm 1911.
  2. ^Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.299
  3. ^African Institution (1812), Vol. 6-9, pp.167-170.
  4. ^Report of the Directors of the African Institution Read at the Annual General Meeting: On the.London:African Institution.1818.Retrieved23 July2016.
  5. ^"Library and Archive Catalog".Royal Society.Retrieved3 August2012.
  6. ^"No. 17724".The London Gazette.14 July 1821. p. 1462.
  7. ^Cokayne, George (1982).The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant.Vol. XXII/1. Gloucester: A. Sutton. pp. 316–318.ISBN0-904387-82-8.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Sir William Scott, Lord Stowell: Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 1798-1828by Henry J. Bourguignon - Cambridge 1987: Cambridge University Press.
  • The Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges of the Last and of the Present CenturyVolume 2 byWilliam Charles Townsend- London 1846: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. Modern reprint by Kessinger PublishingISBN1-4286-1909-7,pp. 279–365.

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