“Defended Queen of the UK” Nicholas Conyngham Tindal Hand Written 2 Page Letter. Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal. (12 December 1776 – 6 July 1846) was a celebrated English lawyer who successfully defended the then Queen of the United Kingdom. At her trial for adultery in 1820. Chief Justice of Common Pleas. An office he held with distinction from 1829 to 1846, he was responsible for the inception of the. Not Guilty by reason of insanity. At the trial of. Judge Tindal was born in the. Where 199 Moulsham Street is today, and the site is marked with a commemorative plaque. Tindal’s father, Robert Tindal, was an attorney in Chelmsford, where his family had lived at Coval Hall for three generations. Was the translator and continuer of the History of England by. A seminal work in its day – and he was also the great great grandnephew of. The deist and author of Christianity as Old as the Creation (known as the’deist’s bible’) and descendant of. Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. Nicholas’s branch of the Tindal family were descended from John Tindal, Rector of. In Devon during the. And who has been claimed as the son either of Dean Tyndall or of (his father) John Tyndall, both of Mapplestead, Essex. John Nichols, in the 18th century, set out a genealogy maintaining that the family derived from Baron Adam de Tyndale of. Though this has been challenged Through this line, Tindal would have been collaterally descended from. Translator of the bible. Tindal was descended from a number of great legal figures, all of whom were members of. Was a great medieval jurist and. Henry VI of England. William Yelverton was an earlier. Lord Chief Justice of England. Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Nicholas’s great great great grandfather, was the author of’the Forest Laws’. Tindal was educated at. King Edward VI Grammar School. In his home town of. Where he graduated eighth. In 1799 and was elected fellow in 1801. A statue to him stands in his home town, and a. Is now dedicated to his memory. Called to the Bar in Lincoln’s Inn in 1810 having practised as a. For many years, as was then customary, Tindal soon attained a reputation for his learning. In 1818, as counsel in the appeal of. He successfully arguing that Thornton was entitled to. It does not appear that his success in the law was followed by success in the battlefield for his client, however, who was deprived of the opportunity by his accuser’s unwillingness and a change in the law. Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish constituency of. From 1824 to 1826; he was MP for. In 1826 before serving as the Member for. From 1826 to 1829, when he was appointed to the bench. An example of Tindal’s learning can be found in his speech to the House of Commons in 1826 on a motion to allow counsel to the defence to make a closing speech. Although his conclusion would find little favour today, Tindal demonstrated an appreciation of the role of prosecuting counsel as a minister of justice and the influences of counsel on a jury that would be recognised by any criminal practitioner in the 21st century. Almost as an afterthought, Tindal added a passionate defence of the’anomalies’ of English law that, in his opinion and that of so many others before and since, are its greatest attributes. At the Bench, Tindal’s greatest achievement was to reform significantly the application of the criminal law. By introducing to the common law the special verdict of. “Not Guilty by reason of insanity”. And of the defence (to murder) of provocation, he left a legacy that remains to this day. (then Prime Minister), but there was no doubt that he was seriously mentally ill and he was acquitted in a verdict so sensational that Queen Victoria herself called for him to be retried in the House of Lords. Whilst this undoubtedly offended the principle of. The House called upon a panel of judges, headed by Tindal, to advise them on the course to take where defendants committed crimes whilst insane. This advice, leading to the special verdict, remains the foundation of the law of insanity throughout the. He directed the jury in the case of the. In the case of. Tindal ruled that, where a defendant was provoked to such a degree that any reasonable man would lose his self-control and then killed the person responsible for that provocation, the defendant would be guilty only of manslaughter. This judgment has also stood the test of time and is the basis of the. Defence of provocation and was incorporated into section 3 of the. The significance of these judgments was to remove the spectre of the noose from many vulnerable prisoners in an era of the widespread application of the death penalty; and to reform the law through the greater recognition of the importance of differing states of mind. In those accused of the most serious crimes. In the context of the century that produced. The Earl of Shaftesbury and. Tindal’s reforms to the cruel application of the criminal law deserve to be remembered as social reforms of great importance. Towards the end of his career, Tindal yet again demonstrated the quality that was to lead to his great popularity amongst the public; namely, his high standard of judicial independence from the state and the wide ambit and discretion he would give to juries. In the case of Frost (1839-40), a prisoner had escaped and led 5,000 armed men into. Where they shot at regular troops. Directing the jury to consider charges of. Tindal said that, were Frost’s motives only to free local. From jail, as opposed to intimidating Parliament into enacting radical constitutional reform, they should find him guilty of riot only. Whilst Frost was ultimately convicted, Tindal’s direction differed from the legal practice of many of his brother judges at the time and since. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Autographs\Historical”. The seller is “historicsellsmemorabilia” and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States.

• Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom