Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Broom, Herbert

by Thomas Finlayson Henderson

BROOM, HERBERT (1815–1882), writer on law, born at Kidderminster in 1815, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as a wrangler in 1837. He proceeded LL.D. in 1864. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in Michaelmas term 1840, and practised on the home circuit. For a considerable period he occupied the post of reader of common law at the Inner Temple. He died at the Priory, Orpington, Kent, on 2 May 1882. He was the author of several works on different branches of law, among which 'Legal Maxims,' first published in 1845, obtained a wide circulation as an established text-book for students. A fifth edition appeared in 1870. Of his other works the principal are:

1. 'Practical Rules for determining Parties to Actions,' 1843.
2. 'Practice of Superior Courts,' 1850.
3. 'Practice of County Courts,' 1852.
4. 'Commentaries on the Common Law,' 1856.
5. 'Constitutional Law viewed in relation to Common Law and exemplified by Cases,' 1st edition 1866; 2nd edition 1885.
6. 'Commentaries on the Laws of England' (with E. Hadley), 1869.
7. 'Philosophy of Law; Notes of Lectures,' 1876-8.

He was also the author of two novels, 'The Missing Will,' 1877, and 'The Unjust Steward,' 1879.

[Law Journal, xvii. 260; Solicitors' Journal, xxvi. 453.]

T. F. H.