Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman

Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, PC KC (23 July 1779 – 26 September 1854) was a British lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice between 1832 and 1850.

Background and education

Denman was born in London, the son of Dr Thomas Denman. In his fourth year he attended Palgrave Academy in Suffolk, where his education was supervised by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and her husband. He continued to Eton and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1800. In 1806 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and at once entered upon practice.

Legal and judicial career

His success was rapid, and in a few years he attained a position at the bar second only to that of Henry Brougham and James Scarlett. He distinguished himself by his defence of the Luddites; but his most brilliant appearance was as one of the counsel for Queen Caroline. His speech before the House of Lords was very powerful, and some competent judges even considered it not inferior to Brougham's. It contained one or two daring passages, which made the King his bitter enemy, and retarded his legal promotion. Unfortunately he made a notable gaffe when he compared the Queen to the Biblical woman taken in adultery, who was told to "go away and sin no more". This suggested that her counsel had no belief in the Queen's innocence, and produced the mocking satire:

Thomas Denman

Thomas Denman may refer to:

Thomas Denman (physician)

Thomas Denman, the elder, M.D. (1733–1815) was an English physician. He was the second son of John Denman (or Thomas), an apothecary born at Bakewell, Derbyshire, on 27 June 1733. After a career in naval medicine he made a considerable amount of money in midwifery. The phenomenon of Denman's spontaneous evolution, by which a spontaneous impaction of the shoulder of a foetus resolves a difficult transverse delivery during childbirth, is named after him. He used his authority to support inducing premature labour in cases of narrow pelvis and other conditions in England (where the mother's life is imperiled by delivery at the full-time).

Biography

Denman was educated at Lady Manners School. He came to London in 1753, and began to study medicine at St George's Hospital. He entered the medical service of the Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate, and in 1757 became a surgeon. Attached, till 1763, to the ship HMS Edgar, when, on the conclusion of peace, he left the service. He then continued his medical studies, and attended the lectures on midwifery of Dr. William Smellie, one of the best observers and most original writers on this field of medical study, and to whose instruction the future distinction of Denman was in part due. He graduated from medical training at Aberdeen 13 July 1764, and began practice as a physician at Winchester. He got so little to do that he returned to London and tried to re-enter the navy, but failed to get an appointment. He obtained, however, the post of surgeon to a royal yacht, the duties of which did not often take him away from London, while the retainer of £70 a year was an important addition to his income. He lectured on midwifery, and continued to do so for fifteen years. In 1769 he was elected physician accoucheur to the Middlesex Hospital, and held the post till his large practice forced him to give it up in 1783. In that year he was admitted a licentiate in mid-wifery of the College of Physicians.

Baron Denman

Baron Denman, of Dovedale in the County of Derby, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1834 for the prominent lawyer, judge and Whig politician Thomas Denman. He served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1832 to 1850. His son, the second Baron, assumed in 1876 by Royal license the additional surname of Aitchison, which was that of his father-in-law. He was succeeded by his grandnephew, the third Baron. He was the grandson of Hon. Richard Denman, younger son of the first Baron. Lord Denman notably served as Governor-General of Australia from 1911 to 1914. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the fourth Baron. On his death in 1971 the title passed to his first cousin Sir Charles Denman, 2nd Baronet, of Staffield (see below), the fifth holder of the title.

The Denman Baronetcy, of Staffield in the County Cumberland, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1945 for the Hon. Richard Denman, younger brother of the third Baron Denman. He had represented Carlisle in the House of Commons as a Liberal from January 1910 until 1918 and Leeds Central as Labour from 1929, and National Labour from 1931 to 1945. He was succeeded by his son, the aforementioned second Baronet, who succeeded as fifth Baron Denman in 1971. He had unsuccessfully contested Leeds Central in the 1945 general election for the Conservatives. He was succeeded by his son, who succeeded as sixth Baron Denman in 2012.