John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (painting by Thomas Lawrence , 1826)

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon PC KC FRS FSA ( June 4, 1751 - January 13, 1838 ) was a British lawyer and politician of the Tories , who was a member of the House of Commons for 16 years and 1801 to 1806 and again from 1807 to 1827 was Lord Chancellor for a total of 25 years . He was thus the Lord Chancellor with the longest term in office to date.

Life

Lawyer, Member of the House of Commons and Solicitor General

Whose father William Scott as Scott broker in Newcastle upon Tyne worked, completed after visiting the local Royal Grammar School first an undergraduate degree at the University College of the University of Oxford , which he in 1770 with a Bachelor of Arts graduated (BA). A subsequent postgraduate course at University College, he finished 1773 with a Master of Arts (MA). After his legal authorization by the Bar Association ( Inns of Court ) from Middle Temple had received, he took a position as 1776 Barrister and was for his lawyer's merits as early as 1783 to the Attorney-General (King's Counsel) appointed.

Shortly thereafter, Scott was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Tories for the first time in 1783 as a member of the House of Commons and initially represented the constituency of Weobley until 1796 and then the constituency of Boroughbridge in 1799 . He served as County Durham Chancellor from 1787 to 1788 .

In 1788 he was appointed Solicitor General of England and Wales by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger as the successor to Archibald Macdonald and as such was Deputy Attorney General until his replacement by John Freeman-Mitford in 1793 and thus one of the most important advisers to the Crown and the Government. At the same time he was beaten to Knight Bachelor in 1788 and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (painting by William Cowen )

Scott, who became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 1792 and of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1793, also took over the office of Attorney General from Archibald Macdonald in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pitt the Younger in 1793 and held this position until 1799 he was again replaced by John Freeman-Mitford.

In 1799, as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, he became chairman of the Court of Common Pleas , the then highest civil law court in England and Wales . He was thus the successor to James Eyre and held this office until his replacement by Richard Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley . In 1799 he was also appointed a member of the Privy Council .

By a letters patent from July 18, 1799 Scott was raised as a hereditary peer with the title Baron Eldon , of Eldon in the County Palatinate of Durham and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death .

Lord Chancellor and Member of the House of Lords

In 1801 Scott, who in 1801 also received an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law (Hon. DCL) degree from University College, University of Oxford, was succeeded by Prime Minister Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, to Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Earl of Rosslyn first appointed Lord Chancellor (Lord High Chancellor) , and held this position in the subsequent governments of Prime Minister Pitt the Younger until January 1806 and his subsequent replacement by Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine . At the same time he also served as high steward of the University College of Oxford between 1801 and his death in 1838.

In March 1807 Scott was appointed by Prime Minister William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland to succeed Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, again as Lord Chancellor in the government of the Conservative Tories. He held the office of Lord High Chancellor now in the subsequent governments of Prime Ministers Spencer Perceval and Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool until 1827 and was then replaced on May 2, 1827 by John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst . With a tenure of over twenty years, he became the Lord Chancellor with the longest term.

By another letters patent dated July 7, 1821 Scott was raised to the Earl of Eldon , in the County Palatinate of Durham with the subordinate title of Viscount Encombe , of Encombe in the County of Dorset.

Most recently, he was also a trustee of the British Museum from 1730 until his death in 1738, and in 1833 financed the construction of the Old Church of St James in Kingston at his own expense .

His marriage to Elizabeth Surtees on November 19, 1772 resulted in three children. Since his only son John Scott had died on December 24, 1805, his son, his grandson John Scott , inherited his title of nobility after his death .

The Eldon Range , a mountain range in the Australian state of Tasmania, was named after him .

Web links

• John Scott at Hansard (English)
• Entry on cracroftspeerage.co.uk
• Entry in leighrayment.com
• John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Earl of Eldon 1821-1838	John Scott
New title created	Baron Eldon 1799-1838	John Scott