John Adolphus (1768–1845) was an
English
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* English people
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
barrister and historian.
Life
Born 7 August 1768, he was of German background. His grandfather had been domestic physician to
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
, and wrote a French romance, ''Histoire des Diables Modernes''. His father lived for a time in London supported by a wealthy uncle, who provided the son with education, and sent him at the age of fifteen to be placed in the office of his agent for some estates in
St. Kitts
Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...
. Adolphus returned to London after something over a year, and was articled to an attorney. He was admitted an attorney in 1790, but after a few years began to write.
The success of his history and the influence of Archdeacon
William Coxe brought Adolphus into close connection with
Henry Addington
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, (30 May 175715 February 1844) was an English Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804.
Addington is best known for obtaining the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, an ...
, then prime minister. Addington put him on a salary, for political services which included electioneering and pamphleteering. He entered the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
, and in 1807 he 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 ...
.
[
He joined the home circuit, and devoted himself specially to criminal work. At the ]Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
he worked his way to the leadership, which he retained for many years. The first of his notable forensic successes was his defence in 1820 of Arthur Thistlewood
Arthur Thistlewood (1774–1 May 1820) was an English radical activist and conspirator in the Cato Street Conspiracy. He planned to murder the cabinet, but there was a spy and he was apprehended with 12 other conspirators. He killed a policem ...
and the other Cato Street conspirators. Among the cases in which he subsequently distinguished himself were the trials of John Thurtell
John Thurtell (21 December 1794 – 9 January 1824) was an English sports promoter, amateur boxer, Royal Marine officer and convicted murderer.
Early life
Thurtell was the eldest son of Thomas Thurtell, who later served as Mayor of Norwich in 182 ...
, James Greenacre, and François Courvoisier.[
Within a few weeks of entering his seventy-seventh year, he died on 16 July 1845.][
]
Works
He wrote ''Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution'' (1799) and ''History of England from the Accession of George III to the Conclusion of Peace in 1783'' (1802), and other historical and biographical works.
He acquired the friendship of Archdeacon Coxe by helping him in the ''Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole''. In 1799 appeared his first acknowledged work, ''Biographical Memoirs of the French Revolution'', strongly anti-Jacobin
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = Pa ...
in tone, and differing widely from the ''Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the French Republic'', published anonymously in 1797, and often erroneously ascribed to Adolphus. He wrote the memoirs in the ''British Cabinet'' (1799), a series of portraits of more or less distinguished Englishmen and Englishwomen, from Margaret of Richmond to the second Lord Hardwicke.[
In 1802 appeared his major work, the ''History of England from the Accession of George III to the Conclusion of Peace in 1783''. It included summaries of parliamentary debates, and Adolphus was praised for it in issue No. 2 of the '']Edinburgh Review
The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929.
''Edinburgh Review'', ...
''. The papers of George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe
George Bubb Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe (1691 – 28 July 1762) was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1761.
Christened George Bubb, he was the eldest son of Jeremiah Bubb of Foy, Herefordshire and his wife ...
had been placed at Adolphus's disposal in the preparation of his history, and they enabled him to throw light on the conduct of Lord Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...
, and on the political transactions of the earlier years of the reign of George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
, who, in conversation, commented on the accuracy with which some of the first measures taken after his accession had been described.[
In 1803 Adolphus published a ''History of France'' from 1790 to the ]Peace of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...
, and a pamphlet, ''Reflections on the Causes of the present Rupture with France'', in vindication of the policy of the English government. According to his son Adolphus wrote ''A Letter to Robert Ward, Esq., M.P.'' (1804), to Robert Ward who had written a defence of William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
in his party quarrel with Addington.[
In 1818 he published, in four volumes, ''The Political State of the British Empire, containing a general view of the domestic and foreign possessions of the crown, the laws, commerce, revenue, offices, and other establishments, civil and military''; in 1824, ''Observations on the Vagrant Act and some other Statutes, and on the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace'', in the main a protest against some "]nanny state
Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early ...
" legislation of the time; and in 1839 the ''Memoirs'' of John Bannister the actor, whom he had known well.[
His history had gone through four editions when, in his seventieth year, Adolphus began the task of continuing it to the death of George III. Vol. I. was re-issued in 1840. Vol. VII., closing with the fall of the Addington administration, appeared in 1845, and Adolphus was working on the eighth volume when he died.][
Adolphus wrote several chapters of ]Charles Rivington
Charles Rivington (1688 – 22 February 1742) was a British publisher.
Life
The eldest son of Thurston Rivington, Rivington was born at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in 1688. Coming to London as apprentice to a bookseller, he took over in 1711 the ...
's ''Annual Register
''The Annual Register'' (originally subtitled "A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year ...") is a long-established reference work, written and published each year, which records and analyses the year's major events, developmen ...
'' and papers for the ''British Critic
The ''British Critic: A New Review'' was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high-church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution. The headquarters was in London. The journa ...
''. His final contributions to periodical literature were biographical sketches of William Garrow
Sir William Garrow (13 April 1760 – 24 September 1840) was an English barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations to ...
and John Gurney for the ''Law Magazine
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
''. The anonymous ''Memoirs of Queen Caroline'' (London, 2 vols., 1824) have been ascribed to him.[
]
Family
In 1793 he married Miss Martha Elizabeth Leycester (1765-1842), daughter of Susanna née Hamner (1740-1805) and Rev Ralph Mort Leycester (1737-1803); a lady "of good family and little fortune". Their children were:
: Moses Joseph Adolphus (1790-?) who emigrated to the U.S.
: John Leycester Adolphus
John Leycester Adolphus (1795–1862) was an English lawyer, jurist and author.
Life
He was the son of Martha Elizabeth née Leycester (1765-1842) and John Adolphus (1768–1845), a well-known London barrister who wrote ''A History of England ...
(1795–1862) was an English lawyer, jurist and author.
: Susanna Elizabeth Adolphus (1795-?), died young.
: Martha Emilia 'Emily' Adolphus (1798-1884) who married Andrew Henderson (1800-1868) in 1847.
After his death his daughter Emily wrote ''Recollections of the Public Career and Private Life of the Late John Adolphus The Eminent Barrister and Historian, with Extracts from His Diaries''.Google Books
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Notes
References
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Attribution
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adolphus, John
1768 births
1845 deaths
19th-century English historians
English male non-fiction writers
18th-century English historians