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68
Hereditary Genius
carried away by sentiment, who love seclusion and dreams, but they are
prominent members of a very different class, one that Englishmen are
especially prone to honour for at least the six lawful days of the week. I
mean that they are vigorous, shrewd, practical, helpful men; glorying in the
rough-and-tumble of public life, tough in constitution and strong in digestion,
valuing what money brings, aiming at position and influence, and desiring to
found families. The vigour of a judge is testified by the fact that the average
age of their appointment in the last three reigns has been fifty-seven. The
labour and responsibility of the office seem enormous to lookers-on, yet
these elderly men continue working with ease for many more years; their
average age of death is seventy-five, and they commonly die in harness.
Now are these remarkable gifts and peculiarities inherited by their sons?
Do the judges often have sons who succeed in the same career, where
success would have been impossible if they had not been gifted with the
special qualities of their fathers? The best answer is a list of names. They
will be of much interest to legal readers; others can glance them over, and
go on to the results.
JUDGES OF ENGLAND, AND OTHER HIGH LEGAL OFFICERS, BETWEEN 1660 AND
1865, WHO WERE, OR ARE, RELATED.
I mark those cases with an asterisk (*) where both relations are English Judges.
FATHERS
SONS
*
Atkyns, Sir Edward, B.E. (Chas. II.)
Sir Robert, Chief Just C.P. Sir Edward, B.E. (Jas. II.)
Atkyns, Sir Richard, Chief Just. N. Wales.
Sir Edward, B.E. (Chas. II.)
*
Brainston, Sir Francis, Chief K.B. (Chas. I.)1
Sir Francis, B.E. (Chas. II.)
Coleridge, Sir John, Just. Q B. (Vict.)
Sir John Duke, Solic. Gen.
Dolben, Sir Wm., Just. K.B. (Will. III.)
Sir Gilbert, Just. C.P. Ireland; cr. Bart.
*
Erskine, T.; cr. Lord Erskine; Lord Chan.
Hon. Sir Thomas, Just. C.P. (Vict.)
1
I count the fathers of the judges of Charles II. because the judges of the present reign are too
young to have judges for sons.
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