Sir Samuel Romilly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1 March 1757 Soho, London, England |
| Died | 2 November 1818 (aged 61) Bloomsbury, London |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, politician |
| Known for | Legal reform |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse |
Anne Garbett (m. 1798) |
| Children | John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly Edward Romilly Charles Romilly Frederick Romilly |
| Relatives | Peter Mark Roget (nephew) Esmond Romilly (great-great-grandson) Giles Romilly (great-great-grandson) |
Sir Samuel Romilly KC (1 March 1757 – 2 November 1818) was a British lawyer, Whig politician, abolitionist and legal reformer. Born in London of French Huguenot descent, he was largely self-educated and escaped poverty through a fortuitous inheritance that allowed travel. From a background in the commercial world, Romilly became well-connected, and rose to public office as Solicitor-General for England and Wales (1806–1807) and a prominent position in Parliament, where he sat for Horsham (1807–1808), Wareham (1808–1812), Arundel (1812–1818), and finally Westminster (July 1818 until his death).
After an early interest in radical politics, he built a career in chancery cases, and then turned to reform of British criminal law and abolition of the slave trade. The grandson of refugees, he became known as a "friend of the oppressed". Yet few of his ambitions were achieved during his lifetime, which was cut short in 1818, when, despondent after the death of his wife, he died by suicide, leaving criminal law "in the same state as he had found it when he embarked upon his work of amelioration".[1][2] He was an early campaigner against the death penalty, which was partially realised on the bicentennial of his birth with the Homicide Act 1957.[3]
His eldest son, John, was Attorney General for England and Wales and was ennobled as Baron Romilly in 1866. Three other sons, Frederick Romilly, Edward Romilly, and Charles Romilly, were first-class cricketers.