The Right Honourable
The Lord Alvanley
PC KC
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas
In office
23 May 1801 – 19 March 1804
MonarchGeorge III
Preceded byThe Lord Eldon
Succeeded bySir James Mansfield
Master of the Rolls
In office
1788–1801
MonarchGeorge III
Preceded bySir Lloyd Kenyon
Succeeded bySir William Grant
Attorney General
In office
1784–1788
MonarchGeorge III
Prime MinisterWilliam Pitt the Younger
Preceded byLloyd Kenyon
Succeeded bySir Archibald Macdonald
Personal details
Born(1744-06-20)20 June 1744
Bredbury, England
Died19 March 1804(1804-03-19) (aged 59)
Political partyWhig
Spouse
Anne Dorothea Wilbraham-Bootle
​
​
(m. 1784)​
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley PC KC (20 May 1744 – 19 March 1804) was a British barrister and Whig politician, who served as the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a Member of Parliament from 1783 to 1801.

Biography

He was born on 20 May 1744 in Bredbury, the son of John Arden (1709–1787),[1] and Mary Pepper, and baptised on 20 June 1744 in Stockport. Educated at The Manchester Grammar School, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in November 1761[2] and received his BA in 1766.[3] Arden was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1769, and received his MA from Trinity the same year, being made a Fellow of the college shortly after.

He took chambers in Lincoln's Inn and became a close friend of William Pitt, with whom he would maintain a political alliance throughout his career. In 1776 he was made judge on the South Wales circuit. Invested as a King's Counsel in 1780, he was Solicitor General during the ministry of Shelburne, and again for a year under Pitt the Younger. At this time he entered the House of Commons as the Whig MP for Newtown, representing the seat from 1783 to 1784. In 1784 he became MP for Aldborough, and was appointed Attorney General and Chief Justice of Chester, posts he would hold until 1788.

On 4 June 1788, he was again advanced to become Master of the Rolls, and was knighted on 18 June 1788. He was also appointed to the Privy Council that year. In 1790, he left Aldborough to become MP for Hastings until 1794, and then for Bath until 1801.

In May 1801, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and on 22 May 1801, was created Baron Alvanley, of Alvanley, in the County of Chester. Alvanley died on 19 March 1804 and was buried a week later in Rolls Chapel, London. His will was probated in April 1804.

Quoting from Cokayne, The Complete Peerage: "He was not a man of great oratorical powers, but possessed the qualities of intelligence, readiness and wit... It would be vain to claim any great distinction for Lord Alvanley. He was a learned lawyer and a successful politician... the few productions that remain from his pen evince refinement, taste and facility of expression."

Family

The grave of Anne, Lady Alvanley, Holyrood Abbey

On 9 September 1784, Arden married Anne Dorothea Wilbraham-Bootle (1757-1825), daughter of Richard Wilbraham-Bootle and Mary Bootle.[4] Their children were:

Coat of arms of Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley
Crest
Out of a ducal coronet Or five ostrich feathers Argent charged with a crescent Gules.
Escutcheon
Gules three cross-crosslets fitchée Or on a chief of the second a crescent of the first.
Supporters
Two talbots the dexter Argent collared Gules thereon three arrows of the first the sinister Sable thereon three arrows Gules.
Motto
Patientiâ Vinces [7]

Notes

  1. ^ Ricard Parkinson,The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom, Vol II Part II, Chetham Society, Printed for the Chetham society, 1857. p. 642
  2. ^ Arden's DNB entry has him at Manchester Grammar from 1752 to 1763, and entering Trinity College in October 1763. However, these dates do not agree with Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses or with ODNB.
  3. ^ "Arden, Richard Pepper (ARDN761RP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ Edmund Lodge, The Peerage of the British Empire as at Present Existing (Saunders and Otley, 1833), 17.
  5. ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, 22nd edition, Sir Bernard Burke, Harrison & Sons, 1860, p. 1117.
  6. ^ The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington, W. H. D. Longstaffe, J. Henry Parker (London), 1854, p. 389.
  7. ^ Burke's Peerage. 1850.

References

External links

Parliament of Great Britain Preceded byJohn Barrington Henry Dundas Member of Parliament for Newtown 1783–1784 With: John Barrington Succeeded byJohn Barrington James Worsley Preceded bySir Samuel Fludyer, Bt John Gally Knight Member of Parliament for Aldborough 1784–1790 With: John Gally Knight Succeeded byJohn Gally Knight Trench Chiswell Preceded byJohn Dawes John Stanley Member of Parliament for Hastings 1790–1794 With: John Stanley Succeeded byJohn Stanley Robert Saunders-Dundas Preceded byViscount Bayham Viscount Weymouth Member of Parliament for Bath 1794–1801 With: Viscount Weymouth Succeeded byParliament of the United Kingdom Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded byParliament of Great Britain Member of Parliament for Bath 1801 With: Lord John Thynne Succeeded byLord John Thynne John Palmer Legal offices Preceded byJohn Lee Solicitor General 1782–1783 Succeeded byJohn Lee Preceded byJames Mansfield Solicitor General 1783–1784 Succeeded byArchibald Macdonald Preceded byLloyd Kenyon Attorney General 1784–1788 Succeeded bySir Archibald Macdonald Preceded bySir Lloyd Kenyon Master of the Rolls 1788–1801 Succeeded bySir William Grant Preceded byThe Lord Eldon Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1801–1804 Succeeded bySir James Mansfield Peerage of the United Kingdom New creation Baron Alvanley 1801–1804 Succeeded byWilliam Arden
Masters of the Rolls
More
More
Authority control databases
Categories