Samuel Romilly

Family origin Romilly was born on Frith Street in Soho, London, into a French-speaking Huguenot family who had fled France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was the second surviving son of Pierre (Peter) Romilly, a watchmaker and jeweller, and his wife, Marguerite (Margaret) Garnault, daughter of Aymé Garnault, another Huguenot jeweller, whose father left Châtellerault in Poitou. Isaac Romilly was his father's elder brother. His paternal grandfather, Étienne (Stephen) Romilly, emigrated from Montpellier to Hoxton in 1701 via Geneva. He married Judith de Montsallier. Étienne's father, who owned a large estate in Montpellier, helped him financially, and he set up a firm in Hoxton as a wax bleacher and was able to comfortably support his large family and business interests. However, when his father died in France, a Catholic relative inherited the estate and slashed his income to a paltry amount, and ultimately he was left bankrupt, unable to cover his expenses. Remembered for his generosity and his piety, Étienne died in 1733, aged 49, "of a broken heart" according to Samuel's memoirs. He left a widow and eight children, the youngest of whom died within a few months and was buried in his father's grave. Samuel's father, Pierre, was the youngest surviving child. Education and upbringing Pierre and Marguerite Romilly married in 1744. They had six children who died young: Michel Pierre (April 1744 – December 1744), Marguerite (born 1745), Sarah (1746–1747), Anne (born 1747–1748), Mary (1749–1755), and Judith (born 1752), followed finally by three surviving children, Thomas Peter (17 June 1753 – 7 December 1828), Catherine (born 14 February 1755) and lastly Samuel. Pierre blamed the deaths of his children on the unhealthy atmosphere of the city of London. They moved to Soho and then moved again to the High Street in Marylebone – at the time a small village a mile from the city. His mother was in poor health, and Samuel and his siblings were largely raised by a maternal relative, Margaret Facquier, who educated the children mainly with the Bible, the 18th-century moralist periodical The Spectator, and an English translation of François Fénelon's Les Aventures de Télémaque. For a while he attended a school run by a Mr. Flack, which he hated, and his formal education ended at age 14. Every Sunday, his family attended the French Protestant Chapel in Soho, where his future brother-in-law, John (Jean) Roget from Geneva, was pastor. (Roget and Samuel's sister Catherine were the parents of Peter Mark Roget). Roget introduced Romilly to the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and he became a follower. Self-taught from then on, Romilly became a good classical scholar and was conversant with French literature. Romilly's first cousin once removed Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet, M.P., was his godfather and namesake, and he had prospects for entering Fludyer's successful wool business. He had a clerkship learning bookkeeping, but Sir Samuel died in 1768, followed by his brother and partner, Sir Thomas Fludyer, in 1769, and the opportunity fell away. However, good fortune entered his life in a generous benefactor, his great-uncle Philip Delahaize (or de la Haize; brother of his grandmother Marguerite Alavoine Garnault). ==Legal career==

In 1778, Romilly decided on a career as barrister, and entered Gray's Inn. He was a pupil of Jeffries Spranger, an equity draughtsman. Called to the bar in 1783, he went the Midland circuit, but was mostly occupied with chancery practice. His practice at the chancery bar grew, and in 1800 he was made a King's Counsel. In 1805 he was appointed chancellor of the county palatine of Durham. ==Travels and associations, radical period==

First continental tour In the legal vacation of 1781, Romilly made a tour in France and Switzerland. He had the family connection with Geneva, through John Roget, now his brother-in-law. Roget, who died in 1783, moved back there for his health, and Romilly brought out the young Peter Mark Roget to be reunited with his parents. In Geneva, Romilly also met Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont. Staying for a period with David Chauvet, one of the progressive group of local politicians, Romilly met the like-minded Etienne Clavière, among others. A friend from the Paris leg of this visit was Marguerite Madeleine Delessert, later Madame Gautier. Her mother was Madeleine Catherine Boy de La Tour, who married Etienne Delessert. Marguerite became the wife of the Genevan banker Jean-Antoine Gautier, who moved to Paris. Romilly stayed at the Delessert home in Passy. Second continental tour In 1783, immediately after being called to the bar, Romilly made a second tour. This time he was accompanied in France by John Baynes, and met Benjamin Franklin at Passy, to whom Baynes had an introduction from John Jebb. In Lausanne he met the Abbé Raynal. In the meantime, the failed Geneva Revolution of 1782 had occurred. Romilly was introduced in 1784 to Honoré Mirabeau, by the Genevan writer François d'Ivernois, as his Memoirs state; Halevy says it was through Thomas Brand Hollis. D'Ivernois and Dumont formed part of the group of the revolution's leaders who by then were exiles in London. Mirabeau saw him daily for a long time.. In what has been called the Bowood circle, Jeremy Bentham, with whom Romilly was acquainted, became a friend, and he had much to do with Benjamin Vaughan, another friend. Romilly and Bentham enjoyed a loose and complex intellectual alliance for several decades from this point. French Revolution and its era In 1789, Romilly visited Paris, and studied the course of the French Revolution there, also visiting the dungeon at Vincennes where Mirabeau had been confined. ==Political career==

In 1806, on the accession of the Ministry of All the Talents to office, Romilly was offered the post of Solicitor General, although he had never sat in the House of Commons. He accepted, was knighted, and was brought into parliament for Queenborough. He went out of office with the government, but remained in the House of Commons, sitting successively for Horsham, Wareham and Arundel. As he concluded his remarks, Romilly was greeted with a standing ovation by other Members of Parliament, a reaction that very rarely occurred in the House of Commons. Wilberforce himself sat with his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face. Legal reformer Romilly worked to reform the criminal law, under the influence of what is now called Classical criminology. He spent a dozen years of his life on the passage through Parliament of legislative reforms. He argued against the attitudes to punishments of Martin Madan and William Paley. The so-called Bloody Code of justice was, in his view, something that required reform, while, as he stated in his Memoirs, one effect of the French Revolution was to lessen the chances of Parliament passing the necessary legislation. The tide of opinion, however, was beginning to turn. In 1808, Romilly managed to repeal the Elizabethan statute which made it a capital offence to steal from the person. Successful prosecutions of pickpockets then rose. Charles Williams-Wynn, on the other hand, saw Romilly's background in equity law, and discrete bills, as inadequate. In 1813, John William Ward found the approach too "philosophical". ==Works==

• A Fragment on the Constitutional Power and Duty of Juries upon Trials for Libels (1784) on juries and the Case of the Dean of St Asaph, anonymous publication by the Society for Constitutional Information. • Observations on a Late Publication Intituled, Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786), influenced by Cesare Beccaria, was a reply to Martin Madan's Thoughts on Executive Justice, advocating the increase of capital punishments. • Thoughts on the Probable Influence of the Late Revolution in France upon Great Britain (1790). • ''Letters containing an Account of the late Revolution in France, and Observations on the Laws, Manners, and Institutions of the English; written during the author's residence at Paris and Versailles in the years 1789 and 1790; translated from the German of Henry Frederic Groenvelt'' (1792), translation from the French of letters of Etienne Dumont, with some of Romilly's own letters (assistance from James Scarlett), containing criticism of British politics from a republican angle. ==Death==

On 29 October 1818, Lady Romilly died in the Isle of Wight. A few days later, on 2 November 1818, Romilly cut his throat, and died in a few minutes, in his house on Russell Square in London. His nephew Peter Mark Roget attended him in his final moments. Romilly was buried on 11 November 1818 at the parish church of St Michael and All Angels, Knill, Herefordshire, with his wife Ann. ==Family==

Romilly married Anne Garbett, daughter of Francis Garbett, of Knill Court, Herefordshire, in 1798. They had met at Bowood House, and Francis Garbett had worked for Lord Shelburne as his secretary. They had six sons and a daughter: Romilly bought an estate from Francis Mathew, 2nd Earl Landaff which was to be divided between his children. After his wife's death Henry, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne and John Whishaw were guardians to his minor children. A private act of Parliament, '''' (4 Geo. 4. c. 22'' ) permitted Lansdowne and Whishaw to purchase the shares in the Landaff estate of Sophia and the minor sons. == References ==