Wilhelm Gottfried von Werlhof

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Wilhelm Gottfried von Werlhof (born October 4, 1744 in Hanover , † May 4, 1832 in Celle ) was a German instance judge.

Life

Wilhelm Gottfried von Werlhof was the son of the doctor and poet Paul Gottlieb Werlhof and the grandson of the Lübeck-born legal scholar Johann Werlhof . Previously only taught by private tutors, he began studying law at the University of Göttingen in autumn 1762 . In Göttingen he is proven to be a member of the Hanoverian Landsmannschaft as well as the student order Ordre de l'Esperance .

In 1765 he finished his studies and joined the law office in Hanover as an auditor . In 1767 he was promoted to extraordinary and in 1771 to real court and chancellery. In 1775 Werlhof was elected judge at the Higher Appeal Court in Celle at the suggestion of the Calenberg landscape . On March 18, 1776, he was ennobled as an imperial noble by Emperor Joseph II and had already achieved a position in life at the age of 31.

In 1786 he was operated on by the court ophthalmologist Casamatta in Dresden for an eye problem and became completely blind as a result of the operation. The 41-year-old judge did not despair of his fate, but adjusted to his handicap. The files were read out to him by officials assigned for this purpose, and others had to carry out the precisely prescribed library research for him to secure his legal opinions. Despite his disability , he became Vice-President of the Higher Appeal Court in Celle in 1800 and, in this context, took on the obligation to continue to fill his post as advisor to the court until the death of his predecessor who was entitled to a pension. He also mastered this double occupation. During the French era , the court initially continued to work, but the remuneration for the judges under King Jérôme only flowed irregularly and then not in full. On September 1, 1810, the Celle court became the court of appeal in the Kingdom of Westphalia and had to apply French law; now von Werlhof left the judicial service. Werlhof privatized from a pension of 5000 francs , which was secretly granted by the former Hanoverian sovereign King Georg III. from London was improved. At the end of the French era he resumed his post as vice-president and was appointed commander of the Guelph Order in 1815 . Also in 1815 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Göttingen. On June 21, 1824 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the Kingdom of Hanover combined with the title of excellence and the Grand Cross of the Guelph Order. After he had celebrated his 50th anniversary in office in Celle in 1825, increasing hearing loss forced him to ask for relief from official business as a judge in October 1831. He died in 1832 just hours after his wife.

family

In 1771 he married Henriette Kramer († May 3, 1832), the daughter of the late mayor Kramer in Sulingen . The marriage had eleven children. The family continued in the male line after his eldest son.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matriculation in Göttingen on October 17, 1762
  2. ↑ Gunnar Henry Caddick: The Hannöversche Landsmannschaft zu Göttingen , Göttingen 2009, No. 00415 (p. 193 ff.) With reference to the family book of Lorenz von dem Busch in the SUB Göttingen , signature: Stabu No. 223.
personal data
SURNAME Werlhof, Wilhelm Gottfried von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German court judge
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1744
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1832
Place of death Celle