Richard Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Alvanley
PC KC
File:1stLordAlvanley.jpg
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas
In office
22 May 1801 – 19 March 1804
Monarch George III
Preceded by The Lord Eldon
Succeeded by Sir James Mansfield
Master of the Rolls
In office
1788–1801
Monarch George III
Preceded by Sir Lloyd Kenyon
Succeeded by Sir William Grant
Attorney General
In office
1784–1788
Monarch George III
Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger
Preceded by Lloyd Kenyon
Succeeded by Sir Archibald Macdonald
Personal details
Born (1744-06-20)20 June 1744
Bredbury, England
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Nationality British
Political party Whig
Spouse(s) Anne Dorothea Wilbraham-Bootle (m. 1784)
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge
Religion Church of England

Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley PC KC (20 May 1744 – 19 March 1804) was a British barrister and Whig politician, who served as the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a Member of Parliament from 1783 to 1801.

Biography

He was born on 20 May 1744 in Bredbury, the son of John Arden (1709–1787),[1] and Mary Pepper, and baptised on 20 June 1744 in Stockport. Educated at The Manchester Grammar School, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in November 1761[2] and received his BA in 1766.[3] Arden was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1769, and received his MA from Trinity the same year.

Invested as a King's Counsel in 1780, he was Solicitor General during the ministry of Shelburne, and again for a year under Pitt. At this time he entered Parliament, as the Whig MP for Newtown from 1783 to 1784. In 1784 he became MP for Aldborough, and was appointed Attorney General and Chief Justice of Chester, posts he would hold until 1788.

On 4 June 1788, he was again advanced to become Master of the Rolls, and was knighted on 18 June 1788. He was also appointed to the Privy Council that year. In 1790, he left Aldborough to become MP for Hastings until 1794, and then for Bath until 1801.

In May 1801, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and on 22 May 1801, was created Baron Alvanley, of Alvanley, in the County of Chester. Alvanley died on 19 March 1804 and was buried a week later in Rolls Chapel, London. His will was probated in April 1804.

Quoting from Cokayne, The Complete Peerage: "He was not a man of great oratorical powers, but possessed the qualities of intelligence, readiness and wit... It would be vain to claim any great distinction for Lord Alvanley. He was a learned lawyer and a successful politician... the few productions that remain from his pen evince refinement, taste and facility of expression."

Family

On 9 September 1784, Arden married Anne Dorothea Wilbraham-Bootle, daughter of Richard Wilbraham-Bootle and Mary Bootle.[4] They had six children:

Notes

  1. Ricard Parkinson,The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom,Vol II Part II, Chetham Society, Printed for the Chetham society, 1857. p. 642
  2. Arden's DNB entry has him at Manchester Grammar from 1752 to 1763, and entering Trinity College in October 1763. However, these dates do not agree with Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses or with ODNB.
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  4. Edmund Lodge, The Peerage of the British Empire as at Present Existing (Saunders and Otley, 1833), 17.
  5. 5.0 5.1 George Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Cornhill Magazine,vol. 77, Smith, Elder and company., 1898 p. 72

References

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Newtown
1783–1784
With: John Barrington
Succeeded by
John Barrington
James Worsley
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Aldborough
17841790
With: John Gally Knight
Succeeded by
John Gally Knight
Richard Muilman-Trench-Chiswell
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hastings
1790–1794
With: John Stanley
Succeeded by
John Stanley
Robert Saunders-Dundas
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bath
1794–1801
With: Viscount Weymouth
Succeeded by
Viscount Weymouth
Lord John Thynne
Legal offices
Preceded by Solicitor General
1782–1783
Succeeded by
John Lee
Preceded by Solicitor General
1783–1784
Succeeded by
Archibald Macdonald
Preceded by Attorney General
1784–1788
Succeeded by
Sir Archibald Macdonald
Preceded by Master of the Rolls
1788–1801
Succeeded by
Sir William Grant
Preceded by Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
1801–1804
Succeeded by
Sir James Mansfield
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Alvanley
1801–1804
Succeeded by
William Arden

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