MEDALLIONS AND INSCRIPTIONS

Sir John Scott Eldon (1751-1838)
Lord High Chancellor

Sir John Scott Eldon, Lord High Chancellor of England, was born in Newcastle on June 4, 1751.  Educated at the local grammar school, he entered University College, Oxford, in 1766, with the goal of taking holy orders.  Graduating with a B.A. in 1770, he failed to obtain a college living, and turned to the study of law, becoming a student at the Middle Temple in 1773.  In 1776 he was called to the bar.  In 1777 Scott appeared in the case of Ackroyd v. Smithsolz, which became a leading case settling a point of law, and in 1778 was leading counsel in the Clitheroe election petition.  In 1782 he obtained a silk gown.

Scott entered Parliament for the close Borough of Weobley in 1782.  In 1788 he was appointed Solicitor-General, and in 1793 was made Attorney-General, conducting  the prosecutions for high treason against Horne Tooke and other British sympathizers with French Republicanism. He described these proceedings in his Anecdote Book. In 1799 Scott became Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and entered the house of Peers as Baron Eldon.  The Chancellorship was conferred on him in 1801. He yielded this office briefly during the Grenville coalition government, but returned to the Chancellorship  in 1807, functioning as de facto Prime Minister for the next twenty years. Finally resigning the Chancellorship in 1827, he last spoke in Parliament in July 1834.  

Additional Biographical Sources

Bentham, Jeremy.  Indications Respecting Lord Eldon. London: Printed for J. and H.L. Hunt, 1825.
[LOLA record for Biddle's copy]

Melikan, R. A.  John Scott, Lord Eldon, 1751-1838: the Duty of Loyalty.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]  

Medland, W. M.  A Collection of Remarkable and Interesting Criminal Trials, Actions at Law. London: J. Pearmain, 1808.[LOLA record for Biddle's copy]

 Surtees, William Edward.  A Sketch of the Lives of Lord Stowell and Eldon. London: Chapman and Hall, 1846. [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]  

Twiss, Horace. The Public and Private life of Lord Chancellor Eldon. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1844. [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]

Wharam, Alan.  The Treason Trials, 1794. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992. [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]    

Major Works

In the House of Lords. [London: s.n., 1791] 

Lord Eldon's Anecdote Book. London : Stevens, 1960 [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]  .

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, During the Time of Lord Chancellor Eldon. Various British and American editions, including this one, which covers the period 1812-1814. [LOLA record for Biddle's copy]

Slavery in the West Indies. London : Printed for Whitmore & Fenn, 1826. 

Speech of the Right Honourable the Earl of Eldon on the Catholic question.  London: Saunders and Otley, 1829. 

Related Websites

http://www.societies.ncl.ac.uk/eldonsociety/
The Eldon Society, at Newcastle Law School