Francis Hargrave (c.1741–1821) was an English lawyer and antiquary. He was the most prominent of the five advocates who appeared on behalf of

James Somersett James Somerset ( – after 1772) was an African man and the plaintiff in a pivotal court case that confirmed that slavery was not legal in England and Wales. Biography Somerset was born in West Africa around 1741. He was captured when he was about ...

in the case which determined, in 1772, the legal status of slaves in England. Although the case was Hargrave's first, his efforts on the occasion secured his reputation.

Life

Hargrave was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the son of Christopher Hargrave of

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boro ...

. He entered as a student at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1760. He came to prominence because of his performance in 1772, in

Somersett's case ''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Somersett's case'', ''v. XX Sommersett v Steuart and the Mansfield Judgment)'' is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on E ...

, and shortly afterwards was made

King's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

. Thereafter, he specialised in legal history and commentary and did not take further part in the

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

campaign. In 1797 he was made

Recorder of Liverpool The Recorder of Liverpool or, since 1971, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool is an ancient legal office in the City of Liverpool, England. The Recorder is appointed by the Crown. The Recorder of Liverpool is also a Senior Circuit Judge of the Liv ...

, and for many years was treasurer of

and a leading parliamentary lawyer. He continued the celebrated compendium of State Trials begun by Thomas Salmon and

Sollom Emlyn Sollom Emlyn (27 December 1697 – 28 June 1754) was an Irish legal writer. Life Emlyn was the second son of Thomas Emlyn. He was born at Dublin, where his father was at the time settled, on 27 December 1697. He studied law, entered as a student ...

, which was later expanded by

Thomas Bayly Howell Thomas Bayly Howell FRS (6 September 1767 – 13 April 1815) was an English lawyer and writer who edited and lent his name to ''Howell's State Trials''. Life Thomas Bayly Howell was born in Jamaica. His family returned to England in 1770 to set ...

. He fell ill, in 1813, and his legal collection was purchased by the government for £8,000 and deposited in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He died in 1821 and was buried in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn.

Works

He published many works of legal history and amassed a substantial collection of legal books and manuscripts. His works were: * ''An Argument in the case of James Sommersett, a Negro, wherein it is attempted to demonstrate the present unlawfulness of Domestic Slavery in England'', 1772; 3rd edit. 1788. Also in Howell's ‘State Trials,’ vol. xx. * ''An Argument in Defence of Literary Property'', 1774. * ''Coke upon Lyttleton'', edited by F. Hargrave and Charles Butler, 1775. * ''State Trials from Henry IV to 19 George III'', 1776, 11 vols. *
A Complete Collection of State Trials, vol VII: 1549-1688
* ''A Collection of Tracts relative to the Law of England, from manuscripts by Hale, Norburie, Blackstone, Hargrave, and others'', 1787. * ''Opinion on the case of the Duke of Athol in respect of the Isle of Man'', 1788. * ''Brief Deductions relative to the Aid and Supply of Executive Power in cases of Infancy, Delirium, or other incapacity of the King'', 1788, anonymous. * ''Collectanea Juridica: consisting of Cases, Tracts'', &c., 2 vols. 1791–2. This includes the manuscript on the Star Chamber left by William Hudson. * ''Sir M. Hale's Jurisdiction of the Lords' House of Parliament, with Preface by F. H.'', 1796. * ''Juridical Arguments and Collections'', 1797–9, 2 vols. The arguments in the Thellusson will case were reprinted from this work separately in 1799, and a new edition by J. F. Hargrave was published in 1842. * ''Address to the Grand Jury at the Liverpool Sessions on the present Crisis of Public Affairs'', 1804. * ''Jurisconsult Exercitations'', 1811–13, 3 vols. A catalogue of his manuscripts was compiled by Sir Henry Ellis, and published in 1818.

References

;Attribution * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hargrave, Francis 1741 births 1821 deaths 18th-century English judges 19th-century English judges English abolitionists English barristers English legal scholars Members of Lincoln's Inn Lawyers from London English male non-fiction writers 18th-century English male writers 19th-century male writers 18th-century antiquarians 19th-century antiquarians English antiquarians