Thomas Chitty

Thomas was the third son of Joseph Chitty and his wife, Elizabeth née Woodward. He was never called to the bar but began to practise as a special pleader in 1820 at the early age of nineteen.[1]

Chitty practised at 1 King's Bench Walk[1] where he educated a generation of eminent pupils including:

• Hugh Cairns, a future Lord Chancellor;[1]
• Farrer Herschell, another;[1]
• James Whiteside, a future Chief Justice of Ireland;[1]
• William Shee;[2]

– and sundry future judges and politicians.[1]

The practice of special pleader demanded mastery of detail and the technical intricacies of the law and Chitty's career spanned huge changes from the Common Law Procedure Acts 1852-4 to the Judicature Acts 1873-5, reforms that changed the ancient regime of forms of action into, essentially, the modern system. Chitty exploited the opportunity in publishing a number of practitioners' texts including preparing new editions of:

• John Frederick Archbold's The Practice of the Court of King's Bench in Personal Actions and Ejectments, despite Archbold's objections;
• His father's Treatise on the Parties to Actions;
• Richard Burn's Justice of the Peace (1845);

– and publishing several works in his own right including Forms of Practical Proceedings (1834). His grandson T. Willes Chitty edited the 11th edition in 1879.[1]

"Chitty was known as a kind and genial man, a keen whist player and musician, and an energetic volunteer."[1] He retired in 1877, and died at home in London.[1]

In 1826, he had married Eliza née Cawston, and the couple had two sons who followed in their father's legal footsteps:[1]

• Thomas Edward Chitty (1826/7-1868), clerk to the Bristol assizes;[1] and
• Joseph William Chitty, became a judge in 1881, a notable Liberal politician.[1]

• Obituaries:
  • Annual Register (1878), 136
  • Solicitors' Journal, 23 (1877–78), 329
  • Law Journal, 23 Feb 1878, 131–2; 2 March 1878, 148

• Hamilton, John Andrew (1887). "Chitty, Thomas" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Hamilton, J. A. (2004) "Chitty, Thomas (1802–1878)", rev. Michael Lobban, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 9 August 2007 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Simpson, A. W. B. (ed.) (1984). Biographical Dictionary of the Common Law. London: Butterworths. ISBN 0-406-51657-X. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)