He was educated at
The King's School, Macclesfield and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He had a brilliant career at the university, winning the Craven scholarship, Sir William Browne's gold medal, and being fifth wrangler and senior chancellor's medallist in classics.
Called to the bar at the
Inner Temple he rapidly acquired an excellent common law practice and in
1828 was raised to the
King's Bench, while still of the junior bar. In
1834 he was transferred from the King's Bench to the
Court of Exchequer, where for some twenty years he exercised considerable influence. The changes introduced by the
Common Law Procedure Acts of
1854 and
1855 proved too much for his legal conservatism and he resigned in December of the latter year.
The government under
Lord Palmerston was anxious to have his services as a
Law Lord, and he was created him a
life peer as
Baron Wensleydale, of Wensleydale in the North Riding of the County of York, on
16 January 1856, but his right to sit in the
House of Lords was challenged by that House, and so he was created a
hereditary peer as
Baron Wensleydale, of Walton in the County Palatine of Lancaster, on
23 July the same year. He died at his residence, Ampthill Park,
Bedfordshire. Since he had outlived his three sons, the hereditary peerage became extinct.
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