Thomas Barnardiston (died 1752) was an English barrister and legal reporter, famed for the inaccuracy of his law reports.

Life

Barnardiston the eldest child of Thomas Barnardiston (born 1677), of Wyverstone and Bury St Edmunds, and his wife Mary, daughter of

Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet ( – 1684) was a statesman, soldier, diplomat and spymaster and preacher, whose allegiances changed significantly during his career, giving his support to Oliver Cromwell and (later, after the Restoration) ...

., who married on 28 June 1705. His sister Elizabeth married John Ewer, and his sister Mary married Edward Goate. After Bury school, he was admitted to

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

in 1722, and to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1723. Barnardiston was created a

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...

on 3 June 1735. He died on 14 October 1752, and was buried on the 20th at

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, London.

Works

His reports in Chancery were published in 1740, 1741, and 1742; and his '' Reports of Cases adjudged in the King's Bench,'' from 12 Geo. I to 7 Geo. II, were published in two volumes in 1744. The Chancery reports are important for containing the decisions of

Lord Hardwicke Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, (1 December 16906 March 1764) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister between 1754 and ...

Reputation

Sir James Burrow said that

Lord Mansfield William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...

forbade the citing of Barnardiston's reports in Chancery, for fear of misleading students, since none of his reports were correct throughout. In the following century

Lord Lyndhurst John Singleton Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst, (21 May 1772 – 12 October 1863) was a British lawyer and politician. He was three times Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Background and education Lyndhurst was born in Boston, Massachusetts, t ...

recalled that when he was a young barrister it was said that the reports were actually nonsense scribbled by a practical joker in the Serjeant's notebook while he was taking a nap. Lord Manners, on the other hand, said: "Although Barnardiston is not considered a very correct reporter, yet some of his cases are very accurately reported;" and

Lord Eldon Earl of Eldon, in the County Palatine of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1821 for the lawyer and politician John Scott, 1st Baron Eldon, Lord Chancellor from 1801 to 1806 and again from 1807 to 1827. ...

said that some of the reports were "of very great authority". Barnardiston's King's Bench reports have also been repeatedly denounced, but also frequently cited.

References

;Attribution * Endnotes: **Faulkner's Chelsea, ii. 136 **Clarke's Bibliotheca Legum, 348 ** Bridgman's Legal Bibliography, 12 **Stevens and Hayne's Bibliotheca Legum, 9 **Woolrych's Serjeants-at-Law, ii. 537 **Burrow's King's Bench Reports, ii. 1142 n. ** Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 94 ** Wallace's Reporters, 261, 322 **Notes and Queries, 4th ser. i. 580 **Gentlemen's Magazine xxii. 478 **Bromley's Catalogue of Engr. Portraits, 285.

External links

* 1706 births 1752 deaths English barristers 18th-century English people

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Serjeants-at-law (England) 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers {{UK-writer-stub