The Right Honourable The Lord Talbot PC
Portrait byJohn Vanderbank
Lord Chancellor
In office 29 November 1733 – 14 February 1737
Monarch	George II
Prime Minister	SirRobert Walpole
Preceded by	The Lord King
Succeeded by	The Lord Hardwicke
Personal details
Born	1685
Died	(1737-02-14)14 February 1737 Lincoln's Inn Fields
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford

Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot,PC (1685 – 14 February 1737) was a British lawyer and politician. He wasLord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1733 to 1737.

Talbot was the eldest son of Rt. Rev.William Talbot,Bishop of Durham, a descendant of the1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Catherine King.

He was educated atEton andOriel College, Oxford, and became a fellow ofAll Souls College in 1704.

He wascalled to the bar in 1711, and in 1717 was appointed solicitor general to theprince of Wales. Having been elected a member of theHouse of Commons in 1720, he becameSolicitor General in 1726, and in 1733 he was made Lord Chancellor and raised to the peerage with the title ofLord Talbot, Baron of Hensol, in the County of Glamorgan.^[1]

Talbot proved himself a capableequity judge during the three years of his occupancy of theWoolsack. Among his contemporaries he enjoyed the reputation of a wit; he was a patron of the poetJames Thomson, who inThe Seasons commemorated a son of his to whom he acted as tutor;Joseph Butler dedicated his famousAnalogy to Talbot, as wasUpton's edition ofEpictetus. The title he assumed derived from theHensol estate inPendoylan,Glamorgan, which came to him through his wife.^[1]

Talbot is remembered as one of the authors of theYorke–Talbot slavery opinion, as a crown law officer in 1729. The opinion was sought to determinate the legality of slavery: Talbot andPhilip Yorke opined that it was legal. The opinion was relied upon widely before the decision ofLord Mansfield inSomersett's Case.

Talbot married, in the summer of 1708, Cecil Mathew (d. 1720), daughter of Charles Mathew of Castell y Mynach,Glamorganshire, and granddaughter and heiress ofDavid Jenkins of Hensol. There he built a mansion in theTudor style, known as the Castle. They had five sons, of whom three survived him:

• William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot (1710–1782), who married Mary de Cardonnel, daughter of Rt. Hon. Adam de Cardonnel, inc. 1733.
• Hon.John Talbot (d. 1756), who married Henrietta Maria Decker, daughter ofSir Matthew Decker, 1st Baronet, in 1737. After her death, he married Hon. Catherine Chetwynd, daughter ofJohn Chetwynd, 2nd Viscount Chetwynd, in 1748.
• Rev. Hon. George Talbot (d. 1782), who married Hon. Anne Bouverie, daughter ofJacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone. They had four children, but only their sons lived to adulthood one of which was theVer. Rev. Charles Talbot.

After an illness during which the King and Queen enquired after his health every day, Talbot died on 14 February 1737 at his home inLincoln's Inn Fields.^[2] He was succeeded in the title by his second son, William (1710–1782).^[3]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Talbot of Hensol, Charles Talbot, 1st Baron".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 368.
• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898)."Talbot, Charles (1685-1737)" .Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Macnair, M. "Talbot, Charles, first Baron Talbot of Hensol (bap. 1685, d. 1737)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26923. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)
• Lord Campbell,Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal (8 vols. London, 1845–69)
• Edward Foss,The Judges of England (9 vols. London, 1848–64)
• Lord Hervey,Memoirs of the Reign of George II ( 2 vols. London. 1848)
• G. E. Cokayne,Complete Peerage, vol. vii. (London, 1896)

• Lord chancellors of Great Britain
• 18th-century British lawyers
• Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for the City of Durham
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• 1685 births
• 1737 deaths
• Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Tregony
• British MPs 1715–1722
• British MPs 1722–1727
• British MPs 1727–1734
• Talbot family
• Barons Talbot

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