Nicolas Conyngham Tindal | |
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 Portrait of Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal by SirThomas PhillipsRA, now in the Great Hall ofLincoln's Inn. | |
| Born | (1776-12-12)12 December 1776 Moulsham,Chelmsford, England |
| Died | 6 July 1846(1846-07-06) (aged 69) |
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| Education | King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford) |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
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| Relatives | Nicolas Tindal (great-grandfather),Matthew Tindal (great great grand-uncle),Adela Maddison, grand-daughter,Reginald Bosanquet (great great grandson) |
Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal,PC (12 December 1776 – 6 July 1846) was a celebrated English lawyer who successfully defended the then Queen of the United Kingdom,Caroline of Brunswick, at her trial for adultery in 1820. AsChief Justice of Common Pleas, an office he held with distinction from 1829 to 1846, he was responsible for the inception of thespecial verdict "Not Guilty by reason of insanity" at the trial ofDaniel M'Naghten.
Judge Tindal was born in theMoulsham area ofChelmsford, where 199 Moulsham Street is today, and the site is marked with a commemorative plaque.
Tindal's father, Robert Tindal, was an attorney in Chelmsford, where his family had lived at Coval Hall for three generations. His great-grandfather,Nicolas Tindal, was the translator and continuer of theHistory of England byPaul de Rapin – a seminal work in its day – and he was also the great-great-grandnephew ofMatthew Tindal, the deist and author ofChristianity as Old as the Creation (known as the 'deist's bible') and descendant ofThomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.
Nicholas's branch of the Tindal family were descended from John Tindal, Rector ofBere Ferris in Devon during theCommonwealth of England and who has been claimed as the son either of Dean Tyndall or of (his father) John Tyndall, both of Maplestead, Essex. John Nichols, in the 18th century, set out a genealogy maintaining that the family derived from Baron Adam de Tyndale ofLangley Castle, Northumberland, atenant-in-chief ofHenry II,[1] though this has been challenged[2] Through this line, Tindal would have been collaterally descended fromWilliam Tyndale, translator of the Bible into English.
Tindal was descended from a number of great legal figures, all of whom were members ofLincoln's Inn.John Fortescue, was a great medieval jurist andLord Chancellor ofHenry VI of England; William Yelverton was an earlierLord Chief Justice of England;Roger Manwood was an ElizabethanLord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; and his nephew,John Manwood, Nicholas's great-great-great-grandfather, was the author of "the Forest Laws" (see alsoTyndall).
Tindal was educated atKing Edward VI Grammar School in his home town ofChelmsford, and later atTrinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated eighthWrangler in 1799 and was elected fellow in 1801.[3]A statue to him stands in his home town, and ahouse athis old school is now dedicated to his memory.
Called to the Bar in Lincoln's Inn in 1810 (having practised as aSpecial Pleader for many years, as was then customary), Tindal soon attained a reputation for his learning. In 1818, as counsel in the appeal ofAshford v Thornton, he successfully arguing that Thornton was entitled totrial by battle. It does not appear that his success in the law was followed by success in the battlefield for his client, however, who was deprived of the opportunity by his accuser's unwillingness and a change in the law.
ElectedTory Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish constituency ofWigtown Burghs from 1824 to 1826; he was MP forHarwich in 1826 before serving as the Member forCambridge University in 1827. Tindal served asSolicitor General from 1826 to 1829, when he was appointed to the bench.
An example of Tindal's learning can be found in his speech to the House of Commons in 1826 on a motion to allow counsel to the defence to make a closing speech.[4] Although his conclusion would find little favour today, Tindal demonstrated an appreciation of the role of prosecuting counsel as a minister of justice and the influences of counsel on a jury that would be recognised by any criminal practitioner in the 21st century. Almost as an afterthought, Tindal added a passionate defence of the 'anomalies' of English law that, in his opinion and that of so many others before and since, are its greatest attributes.
At the Bench, Tindal's greatest achievement was to reform significantly the application of the criminal law. By introducing to the common law the special verdict of"Not Guilty by reason of insanity" and of the defence (to murder) of provocation, he left a legacy that remains to this day.Daniel M'Naghten had assassinatedEdward Drummond, secretary toRobert Peel (then Prime Minister), but there was no doubt that he was seriously mentally ill and he was acquitted in a verdict so sensational that Queen Victoria herself called for him to be retried in the House of Lords. Whilst this undoubtedly offended the principle ofdouble jeopardy, the House called upon a panel of judges, headed by Tindal, to advise them on the course to take where defendants committed crimes whilst insane. This advice, leading to the special verdict, remains the foundation of the law of insanity throughout theEnglish common law world.
He directed the jury in the case of theBristol riots on the rejection of the reform bill in 1831 with the duties at common law to suppress tumultuary meetings.[5][6] In the case ofRegina v Hale, Tindal ruled that, where a defendant was provoked to such a degree that any reasonable man would lose his self-control and then killed the person responsible for that provocation, the defendant would be guilty only of manslaughter. This judgment has also stood the test of time and is the basis of thecommon law defence of provocation and was incorporated into section 3 of theHomicide Act 1957.
The significance of these judgments was to remove the spectre of the noose from many vulnerable prisoners in an era of the widespread application of the death penalty; and to reform the law through the greater recognition of the importance of differing states of mind (mens rea) in those accused of the most serious crimes. In the context of the century that producedWilliam Wilberforce, the Earl of Shaftesbury andBenjamin Disraeli, Tindal's reforms to the cruel application of the criminal law deserve to be remembered as social reforms of great importance.
Towards the end of his career, Tindal yet again demonstrated the quality that was to lead to his great popularity amongst the public;[7] namely, his high standard of judicial independence from the state and the wide ambit and discretion he would give to juries. In the case ofFrost (1839–40), a prisoner had escaped and led 5,000 armed men intoNewport, where they shot at regular troops. Directing the jury to consider charges oftreason, Tindal said that, were Frost's motives only to free localChartists from jail, as opposed to intimidating Parliament into enacting radical constitutional reform, they should find him guilty of riot only.[8] Whilst Frost was ultimately convicted, Tindal's direction differed from the legal practice of many of his brother judges at the time and since.
Tindal married Merelina, daughter of Capt. Thomas Symonds, in 1809 and had four children, Vice Admiral Louis Symonds Tindal[9] (father of composerAdela Maddison[10]), Rev Nicholas Tindal (Rector of Chelmsford) (whose daughter Adela-Rose-Ellen married Surgeon General SirJames Mouat VC CB[11]), Charles Tindal and Merelina Tindal (who marriedJames Whatman Bosanquet of Claysmore and amongst whose descendants was the broadcasterReginald Bosanquet).
He died 6 July 1846 inFolkestone;[12] is buried atKensal Green Cemetery in north London,[13] and is commemorated by a plaque insideChelmsford Cathedral (alongside memorials to other members of his family). In addition to his statue at Chelmsford, there is a portrait of him byThomas Phillips, RA (1770–1845) in the Hall at Lincoln's Inn and another in the judges quarters of theRoyal Courts of Justice.
Chelmsford Museum holds a portrait byJohn Lucas (1807–1874), and portraits of his parents Robert Tindal, by John Jackson (1778–1831) and Sally Tindal, née Pocock (by an unknown artist).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWigtown Burghs 1824–1826 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHarwich 1826–1827 With: John Charles Herries | Succeeded by John Charles Herries William Rae |
| Preceded by Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston John Singleton Copley | Member of Parliament forCambridge University 1827–1829 With:Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston | Succeeded by Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston William Cavendish |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Solicitor General for England and Wales 1826–1829 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas 1829–1846 | Succeeded by |
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