William Webb Follett

Follett was born 2 December 1796 at Topsham in Devon, the eldest surviving son of ten children. His father was Captain Benjamin Follett, late 13th Regiment of Infantry, who had retired from the army in 1790 and gone into business as a timber merchant, and his mother was Ann Webb, daughter of John Webb, of Kinsale, Ireland. Follett attended Exeter grammar school and was privately educated by Mr Hutchinson, the curate of Heavitree. In 1813, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a B.A. without honours in 1818 and an M.A. in 1830. On 11 October 1830, Follett married Jane Mary Giffard, the eldest daughter of Sir Ambrose Hardinge Giffard (1771–1827) who was chief justice of British Ceylon. They had five sons and two daughters. ==Career==

He joined the Inner Temple in Michaelmas term 1814 and read in the chambers of Robert Bayly and Godfrey Sykes. He became a special pleader in 1821 and was called to the bar on 28 May 1824. He joined the western circuit in 1825, where his first notable case was Garnett v Ferrand. He resigned with the ministry in April 1835. Follett never gave up his private practice. He was best known for defending James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan in 1841 after a duel with Captain Harvey Tuckett, His speech in the latter case was parodied in the Pickwick Papers (1837). ==Death and legacy==

, presented in 1842 to the Devon & Exeter Institution, Exeter Follett was first ill in December 1835 and April 1836. He collapsed in February 1839 and could not return to work until later that year. at Westminster Abbey. His marble bust by Edward Bowring Stephens exists in the Devon and Exeter Institution, Exeter. == References ==