William Garrow

Lincoln's Inn, where Garrow was called to the Bar on 27 November 1783

Garrow's family originally came from Moray Scotland, where they were descended from the Garriochs of Kinstair, a Scottish royal line.[1] Garrow's father David was born at a farm called Knockside, Aberlour (Speyside) approximately 50 miles northwest of Aberdeen.[1] David graduated from Aberdeen University with a Master of Arts degree on 1 April 1736, and became a priest of the Church of England, creating a school in Monken Hadley, in what's now the Greater London area. His younger brother William became a successful doctor, leaving most of his estate (£30,000) to Garrow. On 5 June 1748 David married Sarah Lowndes, with whom he had eleven children; William, Edward, Eleanora, Jane, John, Rose, William, Joseph, William, David and Anne. The first two Williams died as infants; the third, born on 13 April 1760, survived.[2]

William Garrow was educated at his father's school in Monken Hadley, The Priory,[3] which emphasised preparing students for commercial careers such as in the East India Company. As such, it taught social graces, as well as English, Greek, Latin, French, geography, mathematics and dancing. Studying there Garrow "knew the English language well; had a moderate acquaintance with the Latin and, as an accomplishment, added a considerable proficiency in French".[4] Garrow attended this school until he was 15, at which point he was articled to Thomas Southouse born Faversham, Kent?,[5] an attorney in Cheapside, London. Garrow showed potential, being noted as "attentive and diligent in the performance of the technical and practical duties of the office",[6] and Southouse recommended that he become a solicitor or barrister; as a result, when he was 17, he became a pupil of a Mr. Crompton, a special pleader. As a pupil Garrow studied hard, fastidiously reading Sampson Euer's Doctrina Placitandi, a manual on the Law of Pleading written in legal French.[7] At the same time he viewed cases at the Old Bailey, forming a friendship with the clerk of arraignment there, William Shelton.[8]

In the 18th century, speakers perfected the art of oratory through debating societies, one of the most noted of which met at Coachmaker's Hall, London. Although initially shy (during his first debate, the attendees had to force him from his seat and hold him up while he spoke), he swiftly developed a reputation as a speaker, and was referred to in the press as "Counsellor Garrow, the famous orator of Coachmaker's Hall".[9] In November 1778, Garrow became a member of Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court, and on 27 November 1783 at the age of 23 he was called to the Bar;[10] he later became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1793.[11]

Sir Samuel Romilly, Garrow's frequent opponent in Parliament.

Since 1789, the press had been speculating that Garrow, a Whig, would enter Parliament; however he was first elected in 1805 for Gatton. This was a rotten borough, with Garrow appointed to serve the interests of his patron, Charles James Fox. After his entry into politics Garrow at first paid little attention, not making his maiden speech until 22 April 1806, when he opposed a charge for the impeachment of Marquess Wellesley. He spoke again on 18 June 1806 on a legal technicality, and after that did not intervene for another six years. Braby and other sources indicate that he did not enjoy his time in Parliament, and was rarely there unless required to conduct some business.[30]

In June 1812, he was appointed Solicitor General for England and Wales, receiving the customary knighthood,[31] and, in May 1813, he was appointed Attorney General. The Attorney General was the senior Crown prosecutor, during a time when the Prince Regent feared liberal changes to the criminal law and Parliamentary structure. Garrow, as "a mere creature of the Regent", could be trusted to oppose this; rather than the progressive, defensive work undertaken in his early career, this period was one of conservative aggression against the reformers.[32] Garrow ran particularly foul of Sir Samuel Romilly, who was one of those looking to reform a penal code many claimed was not working. On 5 April 1813, Romilly's Bill on Attainder of Treason and Felony came before Parliament. Its intent was to remove corruption of the blood from cases involving treason and felony; Garrow, then Solicitor General, declared that the Bill would remove one of the safeguards of the British Constitution. The Bill eventually failed, and corruption of the blood was not removed from English law until the Forfeiture Act 1870.[33] He also served as Chief Justice of Chester from 1814 to 1817.

Garrow also became involved in the repeal of the Corn Laws, voting for the measure, and sponsored legislation to control surgical practice in the United Kingdom; the bill did not, however, pass into law.[34] In the early 19th century animal cruelty was widespread; Garrow was one of those who found it appalling, and sponsored a bill in 1816 to increase the penalties for riding horses until their severe injury or death. While defeated, his actions were vindicated by a bill of 1820 introduced by Thomas Erskine, which was given the Royal Assent and came into law.[35] Garrow eventually resigned as Attorney General and as a member of parliament in 1817, when he was appointed one of the Barons of the Exchequer.[36]

Garrow's first judicial appointment came in 1814, when he was made Chief Justice of Chester. This was opposed by Sir Samuel Romilly, who argued that the positions of Chief Justice and Attorney General were incompatible, saying "to appoint a gentleman holding a lucrative office at the sole pleasure of the Crown to a high judicial situation, was extremely inconsistent with that independence of the judicial character which it was so important to preserve inviolate".[37] On 6 May 1817, Garrow was made a Baron of the Exchequer and Serjeant-at-Law, succeeding Richard Richards,[38] and resigning his seat in Parliament and his position as Attorney General. He was not a particularly distinguished judge in the Exchequer, mainly due to a lack of knowledge of the finer points of law.[39] Practising on the Assize Circuits, however, was a different matter; dealing with his more familiar criminal law rather than the commercial law of the Exchequer, Garrow performed far better. Braby indicates that he regularly amazed both barristers and defendants with his knowledge of the intricacies of crime.[40] Garrow retired on 22 February 1832, replaced by John Gurney,[41] and was made a Privy Councillor on retirement as a measure of the Government's respect for him.[42] He died at home on 14 September 1840, aged 80.[43]

Sarah Garrow

Garrow had an irregular relationship with Sarah Dore, who had previously borne a son, William Arthur Dore Hill, by Arthur Hill, Viscount Fairford in 1778.[44] Thomas Hague has suggested that Dore was an Irish noblewoman Garrow had seduced, but the only intent of his writings was to disparage Garrow, and there is no evidence to support his claim.[45] Their first child, David William Garrow, was born on 15 April 1781, and their second, Eliza Sophia Garrow, was born on 18 June 1784. Garrow and Dore finally married on 17 March 1793.[46] Sarah was noted as particularly elegant, and was actively involved in local matters in Ramsgate, where the family lived.[47] She died on 30 June 1808 after a long illness,[48] and was buried at the Church of St Margaret, Darenth.[49] David William Garrow was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, earning the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and served as one of the Chaplains to the Prince of Wales.[50] His son, Edward Garrow, was a cricketer and clergyman.[51] Eliza Sophia Garrow married Samuel Fothergill Lettsom; one of her children, also named William Garrow, served as the Consul-General of Uruguay.[52]

Garrow's estate was valued at £22,000 after his death near Ramsgate, Kent, including £12,000 in the Bank of England, £5,000 in three insurance policies and £5,000 secured by mortgages – a total of £2,113,000 in 2023 terms.[53] Garrow's will was written in 1830 and contained only two demands; to set up a trust and to be buried in his birthplace, Hadley, with his uncle, his father's younger brother William (who had left Garrow the best part of his fortune).[53] The trust contained his entire estate, with the trustees being Leonard Smith, a merchant, Edward Lowth Badeley of Paper Buildings, Inner Temple and William Nanson Lettsom of Gray's Inn.[53] The money was divided between Joseph Garrow, Garrow's nephew, who received £1,000, £200 to each of the children of Garrow's sister, £2,000 to the sister and £300 a year to the widow of Garrow's son. Eliza, Garrow's daughter, received £300 a year from the interest on the trust, with an additional provision of £200 for the joint use of Eliza and her husband. The estate was structured by a legal professional, and as such no death duties were paid.[54] The second instruction was ignored: Garrow was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence, Ramsgate, his parish church.[55]

Edward Foss described him as "one of the most successful advocates of his day",[56] something linked more to his "extraordinary talent" at cross-examination than his knowledge of the law;[57] Garrow once told a witness before a case that "you know a particular fact and wish to conceal it – I'll get it out of you!"[58] Lord Brougham, who regularly opposed him in court, wrote that "no description can give the reader an adequate idea of this eminent practitioner's powers in thus dealing with a witness".[59] Lemmings notes Garrow as not only a formidable advocate but also the "first lawyer to establish a reputation as a defence barrister".[60]

Garrow was largely forgotten; although Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife discovered his work a generation later when reading transcripts of Old Bailey cases,[28] there was little academic work on him until the late 20th century. In 1991, John Beattie published "Garrow for the Defence" in History Today, followed by "Scales of Justice: Defence Counsel and the English Criminal Law in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" in Law and History Review. Allyson May, who did her doctoral study under Beattie, further extended the analysis of Garrow's work with The Bar and the Old Bailey: 1750–1850, published in 2003.[61]

Garrow's work was cited in court as recently as 1982, when the Supreme Court of Canada quoted a passage from The Trial of William Davidson and Richard Tidd for High Treason, where Garrow instructed the jury as to how to interpret testimony, in Vetrovec v The Queen in 1982. In 2006 he was again quoted, when the Irish Court of Criminal Appeal used the same work in their review of the 1982 conviction of Brian Meehan for the murder of Veronica Guerin.[62]

In 2009, BBC One broadcast Garrow's Law, a four-part fictionalised drama of Garrow's beginnings at the Old Bailey, starring Andrew Buchan as Garrow. A second series, again of four parts, was aired in late 2010, and the third and final four-part series was broadcast in November and December 2011.[63]

• The Garrow Society
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Garrow