William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham

William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham KC (7 July 1719 – 9 May 1781) was a British lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas between 1771 and 1780.

de Grey was the third son of Thomas de Grey, MP, of Merton, Norfolk, and Elizabeth, daughter of William Windham. The de Grey family had been settled in Norfolk since the 14th century. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1742, and became a King's Counsel in 1758.^[1] Between 1761 and 1763 he was Solicitor General to Queen Charlotte.

de Grey entered Parliament for Newport, Cornwall, in 1761, a seat he held until 1770, and then represented Cambridge University from 1770 to 1771, and held office under George Grenville and Lord Rockingham as Solicitor-General between 1763 and 1766 and under William Pitt the Elder, the Duke of Grafton and Lord North as Attorney-General between 1766 and 1771. In 1771 de Grey was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a post he held until 1780, when he was forced to resign due to ill health. He had been knighted in 1766 and on his retirement in 1780 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Walsingham, of Walsingham in the County of Norfolk.

Lord Walsingham married Mary, daughter of William Cowper, in 1743. They had one son and a daughter. He died in May 1781, aged 61, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son Thomas. Lady Walsingham died in 1800.

References

1. ^ De Grey, William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.

• Stephen, Sir Leslie; Lee, Sir Sidney (editors). The Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Times to 1900. Volume VIII Glover-Harriott. Oxford University Press.
• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• www.thepeerage.com

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by John Lee Richard Bull	Member of Parliament for Newport, Cornwall with Richard Bull 1761–1770	Succeeded by Richard Bull Richard Henry Alexander Bennett
Preceded by Thomas Townshend Charles Yorke	Member of Parliament for Cambridge University with Thomas Townshend 1770–1771	Succeeded by Thomas Townshend Richard Croftes
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Fletcher Norton	Solicitor-General 1763–1766	Succeeded by Edward Willes
Preceded by Charles Yorke	Attorney-General 1766–1771	Succeeded by Edward Thurlow
Legal offices
Preceded by Sir John Eardley Wilmot	Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1771–1780	Succeeded by The Lord Loughborough
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Walsingham 1780–1781	Succeeded by Thomas de Grey