Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden

Born in Kensington in 1714, he was a descendant of an old Devon family of high standing, the third son of Sir John Pratt, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of George I.[1] Charles's mother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Rev. Hugh Wilson of Trefeglwys, and the aunt of landscape painter Richard Wilson.[2] He received his early education at Eton, where he became acquainted with William Pitt, and King's College, Cambridge.[3] He had already developed an interest in constitutional law and civil liberties.[4] In 1734 he became a fellow of his college, and in the following year obtained his degree of BA.[3] Having adopted his father's profession, he had entered the Middle Temple in 1728, and ten years later he was called to the Bar.[1]

He practised at first in the courts of common law, travelling also the western circuit. For some years his practice was so limited, and he became so much discouraged that he seriously thought of turning his back on the law and entering the church. He listened, however, to the advice of his friend Sir Robert Henley, a brother barrister, and persevered, working on and waiting for success.[1] Reputedly, once instructed as Henley's junior, Henley feigned illness so that Pratt could lead and earn the credit.[5]

He was further aided by an advantageous marriage on 5 October 1749 to Elizabeth,[6] daughter of Nicholas Jeffreys of the Priory, Brecknock, by whom he had a son John Jeffreys, his successor in title and estates, and four daughters,[7] of whom the eldest, Frances, married Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry on 7 June 1775.[5]

The first case which brought him prominently into notice and gave him assurance of ultimate success was the government prosecution, in 1752, of a bookseller, William Owen.[1] Owen had published a book The Case of Alexander Murray, Esq; in an Appeal to the people of Great Britain which the House of Commons had, by resolution of the House, condemned as "an impudent, malicious, scandalous and seditious libel". The author had left the country so the weight of the government's censure fell on Owen.[8] Pratt appeared in Owen's defence and his novel argument was that it was not the sole role of the jury to determine the fact of publication but that it was further their right to assess the intent of a libel.[4] In his summing up, the judge, Lord Chief Justice Sir William Lee directed the jury to find Owen guilty as publication was proved and the intent of the contents was a question of law for the judge, not a question of fact for the jury. The jury disagreed and acquitted Owen.[8] Pratt was appointed King's Counsel in 1755, and knighted in December 1761.[4]

William Pitt the Elder

Since their youthful meeting at Eton, Pitt had continued to consult Pratt on legal and constitutional matters and Pratt became involved in the group that met at the Leicester House home of George Prince of Wales and who were opposed to the government of Prime Minister the Duke of Newcastle. In 1756, Newcastle offered Pratt a judgeship but Pratt preferred to take the role of Attorney General to the Prince of Wales.[4]

In July 1757, Pitt formed a coalition government with Newcastle and insisted on Pratt's appointment as Attorney-General. Pratt was preferred over Solicitor General Charles Yorke. Yorke was the son of Lord Hardwicke, a political ally of Newcastle who, as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain had obstructed Pratt's career in favour of his own son. Though this led to an uncomfortable relationship between the two law officers of the Crown, it led to the landmark Pratt-Yorke opinion of 24 December 1757 whereby the pair distinguished overseas territories acquired by conquest from those acquired by private treaty. They asserted that, while the Crown of Great Britain enjoyed sovereignty over both, only the property of the former was vested in the Crown. Though the original opinion related to the British East India Company, it came to be applied elsewhere in the developing British Empire.[4]

The same year he entered the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Downton in Wiltshire. He sat in Parliament for four years, but did not distinguish himself as a debater.[1] He introduced the Habeas corpus Amendment Bill of 1758, which was intended to extend the writ of Habeas corpus from criminal law to civil and political cases. Despite Pitt's support, the Bill fell in the House of Lords. At the same time, his professional practice increased, particularly his Chancery practice which made him financially secure and enabled him to purchase the Camden Place estate in Kent.[4]

As Attorney-General, Pratt prosecuted Florence Hensey, an Irishman who had spied for France,[9] and John Shebbeare, a violent party writer of the day. Shebbeare had published a libel against the government contained in his Letters to the People of England, which were published in 1756–58. As evidence of Pratt's moderation in a period of passionate party warfare and frequent state trials, it is notable that this was the only official prosecution for libel that he started[1] and that he maintained his earlier insistence that the decision lay with the jury. He led for the Crown in the prosecution of Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers for the murder of a servant, a case that shocked European society.[4]

Sir Charles Pratt by Joshua Reynolds.

Pratt lost his patron when Pitt left office in October 1761 but in January 1762, he resigned from the Commons, was raised to the bench as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, received the customary knighthood[1] and was sworn into the Privy Council.

The Common Pleas was not an obvious forum for a jurist with constitutional interest, dealing as it did principally with disputes between private parties. However, on 30 April 1763, Member of Parliament John Wilkes was arrested under a general warrant for alleged seditious libel in issue No.45 of The North Briton. Pratt freed Wilkes holding that parliamentary privilege gave him immunity from arrest on such a charge. The decision earned Pratt some favour with the radical faction in London and seems to have spurred him, over the summer of that year to encourage juries to award disproportionate and excessive damages to printers unlawfully arrested over the same matter. Wilkes was awarded £1,000 (£127,000 at 2003 prices[10]) and Pratt condemned the use of general warrants for entry and search. Pratt pronounced with decisive and almost passionate energy against their legality, thus giving voice to the strong feeling of the nation and winning for himself an extraordinary degree of popularity as one of the maintainers of English civil liberties. Honours fell thick upon him in the form of addresses from the City of London and many large towns, and of presentations of freedom from various corporate bodies.[1]

In 1762, the home of John Entick had been raided by officers of the Crown, searching for evidence of sedition. In the case of Entick v Carrington (1765), Pratt held that the raids were unlawful as they were without authority in statute or in common law.[4]

On 17 July 1765 Pratt was created Baron Camden, of Camden Place, in Chislehurst, Kent, becoming a member of the House of Lords. Prime Minister Lord Rockingham had unsuccessfully made this, and other appointments, to curry favour with Pitt but Camden was not over-eager to get involved in the crisis surrounding the Stamp Act 1765. Camden did attend the Commons on 14 January 1766 and his subsequent speeches on the matter in the Lords are so similar to Pitt's that he had clearly adopted the party line. He was one of only five Lords who voted against the Declaratory Act, a resolution of the House insisting on parliament's right to tax colonies overseas. Camden insisted that taxation was predicated on consent and that consent needed representation. However, when he came to support the government over the Act's repeal, he rather unconvincingly purported to base his opinion on the actual hardship caused by the Act rather than its constitutional basis.[4]

In May 1766, Pitt again became prime minister and advanced Camden from the court of common pleas to take his seat as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain on 30 July. Camden managed to negotiate an additional allowance of £1500 and a position for his son John. Camden carried out the role in an efficient manner, without any great legal innovation. He presided over the Court of Chancery from which only one of his decisions was overturned on appeal.[1] He also presided over the judicial functions of the House of Lords where in 1767 he approved Lord Mansfield's ruling that the City of London could not fine dissenters who refused to serve the corporation. Dissenters were in any case prohibited from serving under the Corporation Act 1661. In 1768 in the House of Lords he again sat in a case involving John Wilkes, this time rejecting his appeal and finding that his consecutive, rather than concurrent sentences were lawful. He gave a controversial judgment in the Douglas Peerage case.[4]

John Wilkes MP

John Wilkes

On 28 March 1768, Wilkes was surprisingly elected as member for Middlesex, much to Grafton's distaste. Grafton canvassed Camden on whether Wilkes could be removed from parliament and Camden responded that, under the parliamentary privilege of the House to regulate its own membership, Wilkes could, though lawfully elected, be lawfully expelled. However, Camden saw that this was only likely to lead to Wilkes's re-election and an escalating crisis. The cabinet decided to seek Wilkes's expulsion but Camden was not content with the policy. By the end of 1769, he was in open opposition to the government and was making little contribution to discussions in cabinet. Only Royal pressure kept him in post. However, by the beginning of 1770, Chatham had returned to the fray, opposing government policies on Wilkes and America. On 9 January 1770, Chatham moved a motion opposing the government's policies and Camden stepped down from the woolsack to give a speech in support of the motion. However, he did not resign as Lord Chancellor until King George III, outraged by his conduct, demanded his dismissal on 17 January. He seems also to have resigned as a Chancery judge in late 1769.[4]

Camden was short in stature but of a fine physique. For recreation he enjoyed music, theatre, romantic fiction, conversation and food. His vices were sloth and gluttony rather than womanising or gambling.[4] The Earl Camden died in London on 18 April 1794. His remains were interred in Seal church in Kent.[1][13] Camden died a wealthy man, much of his wealth deriving from his wife.[4] Both Lord Campbell and Sir William Holdsworth held Camden a great Lord Chancellor.

Charles Pratt's memorial stone

[Camden was] a great constitutional lawyer, a great legal historian, and a great common lawyer — a worthy successor, by virtue both of his learning and his principles, of such predecessors as Coke and Hale and Holt.

— Holdsworth[14]

By the 20th century, Camden's legal opinions were seen as subservient to Chatham's politics and Camden certainly followed the party line on Wilkes and America. However, his party loyalty was tempered by a self-serving interest in power. He served under five prime ministers and on two occasions clung to office after Chatham had resigned.[4]

In his last years, he took a great interest in the career of Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, his daughter's stepson. Camden, whose own son was not to prove much of a statesman, recognised young Robert's potential and treated him very much as though he was his actual grandson.

In 1788 he obtained an Act of Parliament granting permission to develop some fields he owned just to the north of London. In 1791 he laid out the land in plots and leased them for the construction of 1,400 houses, the beginnings of Camden Town.[15]

The town of Camden, Maine in the United States, was named for him in 1791.[4] This is one of several cities, towns, and counties bearing his name, including Camden, South Carolina, Camden, North Carolina, and Camden, New Jersey, as well as Camden Counties in New Jersey (of which the eponymous city is the seat and largest city), Missouri and Georgia. In turn, Camden, South Carolina gave its name both to the Battle of Camden and Camden, Alabama. Camden, Tennessee was named for the battle, and Camden, Arkansas took its name from the town in Alabama. Furthermore, Pratt Street, a major thoroughfare in Baltimore, is also named partially after him.

• Chapman v Pickersgill (1762) 2 Wilson 145, 146, "I wish never to hear this objection again. This action is for a tort: torts are infinitely various; not limited or confined, for there is nothing in nature but may be an instrument of mischief".
• Entick v Carrington (1765) 19 Howell's State Trials 1030, right to security and property without arbitrary official interference
• Donaldson v Beckett 98 ER 257 (1774)

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Camden, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 100.
• Campbell, J. L. (1851a) Life of Lord Chancellor Camden from his Birth till the Death of George II, Blanchard & Lea
• — (1851b) Continuation of the Life of Lord Chancellor Camden till he became and Ex-Chancellor, Blanchard & Lea
• Eeles, H. S. (1934) Lord Chancellor Camden and his Family
• Howell, T. B; Howell, T. J. (1828). General Index to the Collection of State Trials. Vol. Part I – Names. London: Hansard. pp. p.108. (Google Books)
• Rigg, J. M. (1896). "Pratt, Charles (1714-1794)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Rose, M. (1988). "The author as proprietor: Donaldson v. Becket and the genealogy of modern authorship". Representations. 23: 51–85. doi:10.1525/rep.1988.23.1.99p0230p.
• Thomas, P. D. G. (2008) "Pratt, Charles, first Earl Camden (1714–1794)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edn, accessed 15 February 2008 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Towers, J. (1764). An Enquiry into the Question, whether Juries are, or are not, Judges of Law, as well as of Fact; with a particular Reference to the Case of Libels. London: J. Wilkie.

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