Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 May 1795 Reading, Berkshire, England |
| Died | 13 March 1854 (aged 58) Stafford, Staffordshire, England |
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd SL (26 May 1795 –13 March 1854) was an English judge, Radical politician [1] [2] [3] and author.
Talfourd was born at Reading, Berkshire, son of Edward Talfourd, a wealthy brewer, and Ann, daughter of Rev. Thomas Noon, a dissenting religious minister in Reading. His father and grandfather were deeply religious; Talfourd himself became a practising Anglican as an adult. [4] He received his education at Hendon and Reading School. At the age of 18, he was sent to London to study law under Joseph Chitty, a special pleader. Early in 1821, he joined the Oxford circuit, having been Called to the Bar at Middle Temple earlier in the year. Fourteen years later, he was created a serjeant-at-law and led the court with William Fry Channell until 1846, when serjeants lost their monopoly of audience. In 1849 he succeeded Thomas Coltman as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. [5]
At the general election in 1835 he was elected MP for the Parliamentary Borough of Reading as a Radical, a result repeated in the general election of 1837. He chose not to stand in the general election of 1841, but stood again in the general election of 1847 and was elected. In the House of Commons, Talfourd introduced a copyright bill in 1837, but the dissolution of Parliament in 1837 following the death of William IV meant that it had to be reintroduced in the new Parliament in 1838. By that time, the bill was met with strong opposition. Talfourd re-introduced it again in 1839, 1840 and 1841. It finally became law in 1842, albeit in modified form, and at a time when Talfourd was not in Parliament. Charles Dickens dedicated The Pickwick Papers to Talfourd. [5]
In his early years in London, Talfourd was dependent in great measure on his literary contributions. He was then on the staff of The London Magazine , and was an occasional contributor to the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Review , The New Monthly Magazine , and other periodicals; on joining the Oxford circuit, he acted as law reporter to The Times . His legal writings on literary matters are excellent expositions, animated by a lucid and telling, if not highly polished, style. Among the best of these are his article On the Principle of Advocacy in the Practice of the Bar (in the Law Magazine, January 1846); his Proposed New Law of Copyright of the Highest Importance to Authors (1838); Three Speeches delivered in the House of Commons in Favour of an Extension of Copyright (1840); and Speech for the Defendant in the Prosecution, the Queen v. Moxon, for the Publication of Shelley's Poetical Works (1841), a celebrated defence of Edward Moxon. [5]
Talfourd's tragedy Ion was privately printed in 1835 and produced the following year at Covent Garden theatre. It was also well received in America, and was revived at Sadler's Wells Theatre in December 1861. His dramatic poem turns on the voluntary sacrifice of Ion, king of Argos, in response to the Delphic oracle, which had declared that only with the extinction of the reigning family could the prevailing pestilence incurred by the deeds of that family be removed. [5]
Two years later, at the Haymarket Theatre, The Athenian Captive was acted with moderate success. In 1839 Glencoe , was privately printed, and in 1840 it was produced at the Haymarket. The Castilian (1853) did not excite much interest. [5]
Talfourd also wrote:
Talfourd married Rachel, daughter of the English political activist and social reformer John Towill Rutt. The barrister and dramatist Francis ("Frank") Talfourd was their eldest son. [6]
Talfourd died in 1854 in Stafford, after an apoplectic seizure in court while addressing the jury from his judge's seat [7] at the town's Shire Hall, where he is commemorated by a bust, sculpted by John Graham Lough. [8]
Dickens was amongst the mourners at Talfourd's funeral at West Norwood Cemetery. Talfourd Avenue, a residential street in Reading, is named after him. [9]
William Harrison Ainsworth was an English historical novelist born at King Street in Manchester. He trained as a lawyer, but the legal profession held no attraction for him. While completing his legal studies in London he met the publisher John Ebers, at that time manager of the King's Theatre, Haymarket. Ebers introduced Ainsworth to literary and dramatic circles, and to his daughter, who became Ainsworth's wife.
Edward Moxon was a British poet and publisher, significant in Victorian literature.
William Charles Macready was an English stage actor. The son of Irish actor-manager William Macready the Elder he emerged as a leading West End performer during the Regency era.
Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro, was a British lawyer, judge, and politician. He was Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1850 and 1852.
Victorian literature is English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. In the Victorian era, the novel became the leading literary genre in English. English writing from this era reflects the major transformations in most aspects of English life, from scientific, economic, and technological advances to changes in class structures and the role of religion in society. The number of new novels published each year increased from 100 at the start of the period to 1000 by the end of it. Famous novelists from this period include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, the three Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Rudyard Kipling.
Thomas Hailes Lacy was a British actor, playwright, theatrical manager, bookseller, and theatrical publisher.
Joseph Chitty was an English lawyer and legal writer, author of some of the earliest practitioners' texts and founder of an important dynasty of lawyers.
The New Monthly Magazine was a British monthly magazine published from 1814 to 1884. It was founded by Henry Colburn and published by him through to 1845.
The Common Serjeant of London is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1291, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.
Edward William Cox known as Serjeant Cox (1809–1879) was an English lawyer and legal writer, who was also a successful publisher. He has been described as "the greatest entrepreneur of 'class' journalism".
Sir Samuel Shepherd KS PC FRSE was a British barrister, judge and politician who served as Attorney General for England and Lord Chief Baron of the Scottish Court of Exchequer.
Robert Aglionby Slaney was a British barrister and Whig politician from Shropshire. He sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Shrewsbury for most of the period from 1826 until his death in 1862.
Henry Ashworth was an English cotton manufacturer, friend of Richard Cobden, and founding member of the Anti-Corn Law League.
Thomas Tegg (1776–1845) was a British bookseller and publisher.
The 19th-century English writer Charles Lamb's letters were addressed to, among others, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Godwin, and Thomas Hood, all of whom were close friends. They are valued for the light they throw on the English literary world in the Romantic era and on the evolution of Lamb's essays, and still more for their own "charm, wit and quality".
Francis Talfourd (1828–1862) was an English barrister, better known as a dramatist.
Frederick Knight Hunt (1814–1854) was an English journalist and author, known for The Fourth Estate, a history of journalism.
Sarah Maclardie Amos born Sarah Maclardie Bunting (1840–1908) was a political activist. She was the superintendent of the Working Women's College in Queen Square, London.
Charlotte Elizabeth Vandenhoff, became Charlotte Swinbourne, was a British actress who appeared in leading theatres in London, New York and Philadelphia.
William Bradbury was an English printer and publisher. He is known for his work as a partner from 1830 in Bradbury and Evans, who printed the works of a number of major novelists such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, as well as leading periodicals such as Punch, which they also owned.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
