The Lord Brampton | |
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 Lord Brampton. | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1817-09-14)14 September 1817 |
| Died | 6 October 1907(1907-10-06) (aged 90) |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Hanna Casey (d. 1886) (2) Jane Louisa Reynolds (d. 1907) |
| Signature |  |
Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton,PC (14 September 1817 – 6 October 1907), known asSir Henry Hawkins between 1876 and 1899, was anEnglish judge. He served as a Judge of theHigh Court of Justice between 1876 and 1898.R. F. V. Heuston described him as "probably the worst judge on the English Bench in the nineteenth century."[citation needed]
Born atHitchin,Hertfordshire, Hawkins was the son of John Hawkins, a solicitor, and Susanna, daughter of Theed Pearse. Through his father he was early familiarised with legal principles. He was educated atBedford School, and wascalled to the Bar,Middle Temple, in 1843.
Hawkins at once joined the old home circuit, and after enjoying a lucrative practice as a junior, was madeQueen's Counsel in 1859. His name is identified with many of the famous trials of the reign ofQueen Victoria. He was engaged in theSimon Bernard case, in that ofRoupell v. Waite, and in theOverend-Gurney prosecutions. The twocauses célèbres, however, in which Hawkins attained his highest legal distinction were theTichborne trials and the great will case ofSugden v. Lord St. Leonards, relating to the lost will ofEdward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards. In both of these he won. He had a lucrative business in references and arbitrations, and acted for the royal commissioners in the purchase of the site for the new law courts. Election petitions also formed another branch of his extensive practice.[1]
Hawkins was raised to the bench in 1876, and was assigned to the thenexchequer division of theHigh Court of Justice, not asBaron of the Exchequer (an appellation which was being abolished by theJudicature Act), but with the title of Sir Henry Hawkins. His knowledge of the criminal law was extensive and intimate and he got a reputation as ahanging judge.[1] Hawkins would be the judge at a large number of the most famous English criminal trials of his day. His first major case was the1877 trial of Louis Staunton, his brother Patrick, and two others for the murder of Louis' wife Harriet and her baby by starvation. A question regarding whether he was too favourable to the prosecution's case (coupled with evidence of meningitis rather than starvation being the cause of death) led to a public campaign orchestrated by the novelistCharles Reade. The decision reduced the sentences of the three convicted defendants (for the Staunton brothers prison sentences rather than death sentences). Patrick Staunton's barrister,Edward Clarke, never forgave Hawkins, whom he considered a wicked judge.
Other trials that Hawkins presided over includedCharles Peace for maliciously wounding a police constable in October 1878 (the trial was the following month), DrGeorge Henry Lamson for the poisoning of his brother-in-law Percy Johns at Wimbledon in December 1881 (the trial was in April 1882); thetrial of Mary Fitzpatrick for murder in November 1882;[2] the Earl of Euston's 1889 libel case against newspaper editorErnest Parke – a notorious miscarriage of justice that was part of theCleveland Street scandal; the trial of DrThomas Neill Cream for the Lambeth/Stepney poisonings of prostitutes from December 1891 to April 1892 (the trial was in November 1892); and the trial ofAlbert Milsom and Henry Fowler for theMuswell Hill murder in February 1896 (the trial was in May 1896). In 1898 he retired from the bench. The following year he was raised to the peerage asBaron Brampton, of Brampton in the County of Huntingdon,[3] and sworn of thePrivy Council.[4] He frequently took part in determiningHouse of Lords appeals.
A controversial judge, Hawkins was not given a valedictory on his retirement, for fear that he would be abused in open court, Sir Edward Clarke having threatened to appear in order to condemn him.
Lord Brampton was twice married. He married firstly Hannah Theresa Casey (born Hannah Helwig inSt Ives,Huntingdonshire in 1815. She first married Thomas Lawrence in 1836) After her death on 10 September 1886 he married secondly Jane Louisa, daughter of Henry Francis Reynolds, in 1887. He held for many years the office of counsel to theJockey Club, and as an active member of that body found relaxation from his legal and judicial duties at the leading race meetings, and was considered a capable judge of horses. In 1898 he converted toCatholicism, and in 1903 he presented, in conjunction with Lady Brampton (his second wife), the chapel of Sts. Augustine and Gregory to the Roman CatholicWestminster Cathedral, which was consecrated in that year. In 1904 he published hisReminiscences edited by Richard Harris, K.C., published by Edward Arnold, London.[1]
Lord Brampton died at Tilney Street,Park Lane,London, on 6 October 1907, aged 90; the barony then became extinct. He left a fortune of £141,000. Lady Brampton (Jane Louisa Reynolds) died in 17 November the same year. They are buried together inKensal Green Cemetery inLondon.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brampton, Henry Hawkins".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 418.
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
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| New creation | Baron Brampton 1899–1907 | Extinct |
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