Sir Henry Sutton (10 January 1845 – 30 May 1920) was an English lawyer and High Court judge.

Biography

Henry Sutton was second surviving son of James Sutton, of

Shardlow Hall Shardlow Hall was a school in Shardlow, a village seven miles south of Derby in the English Midlands. It was founded by Bertie Corbett, B.O.Corbett, who had played football for England, as a preparatory school for boys. One of its notable student ...

, Derbyshire, boatbuilder and

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

. He was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was Senior Optime in the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was ...

in 1868. He was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in April 1870 and joined the Midland and North-Eastern Circuits, in addition to a London practice. He acquired a good, though not exceptional practice, and was the author of a book on the ''Law of Tramways'', which led to him being retained in important tramway cases. In 1890, he was appointed Junior Counsel to the Treasury in succession to R. S. Wright, who had received the customary promotion to the High Court bench, even though Sutton's claims to the position were thought as being inferior to those of other juniors. He appeared for the Crown in a range of important cases, the most famous of which was the trial of Dr Leander Starr Jameson for his role in the ill-fated

Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...

, in which Sutton appeared with the Attorney-General. He also participated in the prosecution of Arthur Lynch MP for high treason during the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

. Among his other high-profile trials were the prosecution of the Boer lawyer Frederick Edward Traugott Krause for incitement to murder and the prosecution of

Earl Russell Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 30 July 1861 for the prominent Liberal politician Lord John Russell. He was Home Secretary from 1835 to 1839, Foreig ...

for bigamy in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

. Though Junior Counsels to the Treasury were appointed to the High Court as a matter of course, Sutton had to wait for 15 years for judicial preferment, there being doubts about his abilities. Finally, on 4 December 1905, he was appointed to the High Court and assigned to the

King's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

, receiving the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

. His service, however, was blighted by constant illness, and he resigned on 18 April 1910, four years after his appointment. His obituary in The ''Times'' commented that:

Because of his short judicial life there was perhaps no judge in recent years who left so little mark on legal history or the Law Reports as Sir Henry Sutton... His four years' record as Judge was practically void of content. When he was sitting with others he rarely did more than express concurrence; and he was not infrequently reversed when he had to speak for himself.

However, it also noted that "a kindlier, gentler spirit did not breathe in the profession". Sutton married in 1872 Caroline Elizabeth Nanson, daughter of John Nanson, Knells, Carlisle; they had one son and four daughters. Lady Sutton died in 1916. Two of his daughters were married to the Liberal MP

Julius Bertram Julius Bertram (8 November 1866 – 5 November 1944) was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom who served one term as member of parliament (MP) for the Hitchin division of Hertfordshire. Bertram was son of Julius Alfred Bertram (1829 ...

and the South African politician

Herbert Warington Smyth Herbert Warington Smyth (4 June 1867 – 19 December 1943) CMG, FGS, FRGS, was a British traveller, writer, naval officer and mining engineer who served the government of Siam and held several important posts in the Union of South Africa. Earl ...

References

{{Reflist * "Death Of Sir H. Sutton.", The ''Times'', 1 June 1920 Knights Bachelor 1920 deaths People from Derbyshire People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Members of Lincoln's Inn Queen's Bench Division judges 1845 births