- Thomas Starkie
Thomas Starkie (
2 January ,1782 –15 April ,1849 ) was an Englishlawyer andjurist . A talentedmathematician in his youth, he especially contributed to the unsuccessful attempts to codify the Englishcriminal law in the nineteenth century.Early life
Born
Blackburn ,Lancashire , Thomas was the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Starkie,vicar of Blackburn, and his wife, Ann "née" Yatman. He was educated atClitheroe Royal Grammar School andSt John's College, Cambridge , from where he graduated in 1803 assenior wrangler and firstSmith's prize man. In the same year, he became a fellow ofSt Catharine's College, Cambridge . In 1812 he married Lucy, eldest daughter of Rev.Thomas Dunham Whitaker which entailed that he resign his fellowship. The couple went on to parent five children.Lobban (2004)]Legal practice
Starkie entered
Lincoln's Inn as a pupil of Joseph Chitty and wascalled to the bar in 1810, proceeding to practise as aspecial pleader as well as on the northern circuit, and becoming aQC .In 1823 he became Downing Professor of law at Cambridge though he had little success in attracting pupils with his poor presentations, a fate shared with his contemporary John Austin. He repeated his failure at the
Inner Temple in 1833. However, in 1833, Starkie was appointed to theroyal commission on a proposedEnglish Criminal Code and spent the rest of his life on various commissions on reform and codification of the criminal law. He was not always popular with his colleagues,Henry Bellenden Ker calling him "childish" and "desultory and wayward".He was also a sometime
law report er and author of the influential texts: "A Practical Treatise on the Law of Slander, Libel, and Incidentally of Malicious Prosecutions" (1812) and "A Practical Treatise on the Law of Evidence" (1824). In 1847, Starkie became ajudge in theClerkenwell small-debts court .He died in his rooms in
Downing College, Cambridge .Politics
Starkie's instincts were
Tory and he opposed theCatholic Relief Act 1829 . However, in 1840 he unsuccessfully stood as a Liberal Party candidate in Cambridge.References
Bibliography
*Obituaries:
**"Gentleman's Magazine ", 2nd ser., 32 (1849), 208;
**"Law Review ", 10 (1849), 201–4----
*Lobban, M. (2004) " [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26319 Starkie, Thomas (1782–1849)] ", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ", Oxford University Press, accessed 9 Aug 2007 (subscription required)
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