Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce, (born James Lewis Knight; 15 February 1791 – 7 November 1866) was an English barrister, judge and politician.
Life
He was the youngest son of John Knight of
Fairlinch,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, by Margaret, daughter and heiress of William Bruce of
Llanblethian
Llanblethian ( cy, Llanfleiddian) is a village in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales which sits upon the River Thaw. It makes up part of the community of Cowbridge with Llanblethian, which consists of the village itself, the larger market town of Cow ...
,
Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
. He was born at
Barnstaple
Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...
on 15 February 1791, and was educated at
King Edward's grammar school, Bath, and at
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...
. He left Sherborne in 1805, and, after spending two years with a mathematical tutor, was articled to a solicitor in
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
. When his articles had expired, he was admitted a student of
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 ...
on 21 July 1812.
On 21 November 1817 Knight was
called to the bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
, and for a short time went the Welsh circuit. The increase of his
chancery practice soon caused him to abandon the common law bar, and he confined himself to practising in the equity courts. In Michaelmas term 1829 he was appointed a
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 ...
, and on 6 November in the same year was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. On taking silk he selected the vice-chancellor's court, where
Sir Edward Sugden
Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, 1st Baron Saint Leonards, (12 February 178129 January 1875) was a British lawyer, judge and Conservative politician.
Background
Sugden was the son of a high-class hairdresser and wig-maker in Westminster, London. Detai ...
was the leader; they had constant contests until Sugden's appointment as
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...
in 1834.
In politics Knight was a Tory, and in April 1831 he was returned for
Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle is a market town in the south west of Shropshire, England. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 1,893.
Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales-England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of ...
, a
pocket borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...
belonging to
Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis
Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis, (7 March 1754 – 16 May 1839), known as the Lord Clive between 1774 and 1804, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1794 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clive.
Earl ...
. His parliamentary career, however, was short, for the borough was disfranchised by the
Great Reform Bill
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...
. In 1834 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. In 1835 he was one of the counsel heard at the bar of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on behalf of the municipal corporations against the
Municipal Reform Bill
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will 4 c 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The legisl ...
, and in 1851 on behalf of the deans and chapters against the