Judicial career
In 1875,he was appointed to be a Serjeant-at-law [4] [5] and a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, [4] [5] the appointment of a chancery barrister to a common law court being justified by the fusion of common law and equity then shortly to be brought about,in theory at all events,by the Judicature Acts.
In 1875,he was knighted. [6] [7] In 1880 he became a justice of the Queen's Bench and in 1881 he was raised to be a Lord Justice of Appeal [1] [8] and was sworn of the Privy Council. [2] [9]
In 1897,Lord Justice Lindley succeeded Lord Esher as Master of the Rolls, [1] [10] [11] and in 1900 he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary [12] [13] with a life peerage and the title of Baron Lindley,of East Carleton in the County of Norfolk. [12] [13] He resigned the judicial post in 1905. [2]
Prior to the 1875 reforms,the appointment of serjeants-at-law had already declined,but common law judges could only be appointed from amongst the serjeants-at-law,so it was customary for any appointee who was not yet a serjeant to be appointed a serjeant immediately prior to being appointed a judge. As the requirement for common law judges to be serjeants was abolished shortly after,Lord Lindley became the last serjeant-at-law appointed,and the last judge to wear the serjeant's coif,or rather the black patch representing it,on the judicial wig. [2]
Mount Lindley in Antarctica is named after him.
