Hide
hide
Hide

Transcript

of

William Henry Tinney, QC [Obituary]

Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1872 , Vol. V, p. 38.

by

Rev. W. Hartley

Prepared by Michael Steer

The Legal Observer, Digest and Journal of Jurisprudence, Vol 35, provides a rather acerbic paragraph on the appointment of Mr Tinney as the new Master in Chancery; “The vacancy in the office of Masters of the Court of Chancery, occasioned by the death of Mr Duckworth, has been filled by the appointment of William H. Tinney Esq., QC. We thought the emoluments and easy duty would not long be neglected. The learned gentleman was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, on Nov. 22, 1811. In order of seniority he ranked after Lord Campbell and Mr Selwyn, and before the Rt. Hon. Mr. Pemberton Leigh and Vice Chancellor Knight Bruce. This appointment is an exception to the usual adherence to party claims; but as a Law Lord said on another occasion “blood is thicker than water !”. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

William Henry Tinney, Q.C, a once celebrated lawyer, the contemporary of Brougham and Campbell, was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he took high honours, and was in due course elected a Fellow of his College. He was called to the Bar in 1811, and was made a Queen's Counsel and Bencher of Lincoln's-Inn in 1829. He was eminent as a real property lawyer, and was one of the Real Property Commissioners with Lord Campbell. It is a strong testimony to the high estimation in which his legal knowlege and personal character were held, that he was, though himself a staunch conservative, appointed to a vacant Mastership of Chancery by a whig government. On the abolition of the Masters’ offices he retired with a pension of £2500 a year. The last years of his life he spent at Torquay, and was a Member of the Natural History Society there. He joined the Association at the Tiverton Meeting in 1865. He died at his residence, Snowdenham, Torquay, on November 30th, 1871, at the ripe age of 88 years, lamented, not only by a large circle of attached personal friends, but by the many who had profited by his open-handed liberality in matters of charity.