Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Luders, Alexander
LUDERS, ALEXANDER (d. 1819), legal writer, was second son of Theodore Luders of Lyncombe and Widcombe, Somerset. He was probably of German extraction, and when admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 10 July 1770 was described in the books of the inn as ‘Sacri Romani Imperii nobilis Eques.’ He was called to the bar on 6 Feb. 1778, and became a bencher of his inn on 10 May 1811. He died 25 Nov. 1819. He would seem to be the father of Alexander Luders, who matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1806, aged 17, and died in 1851 (Foster, Alumni Oxonienses). He bequeathed some of his books to the Inner Temple Library, and among them a copy of his ‘Reports of the Proceedings,’ &c., with manuscript notes of his own (cf. Hallam, Const. Hist. iii. 60–1, ed. 1829).
Luders's historico-legal writings are several times cited with approval by Hallam in his ‘Middle Ages’ and ‘Constitutional History,’ and have not yet lost their value. He wrote or edited: 1. ‘Reports of the Proceedings in Committee of the House of Commons upon Controverted Elections heard … during the present Parliament,’ London, 1785–90, 8vo, 3 vols. 2. ‘An Essay on the Use of the French Language in our Ancient Laws and Acts of State,’ Bath, 1807, 8vo. 3. ‘Considerations on the Law of High Treason, in the article of Levying War,’ Bath, 1808, 8vo. 4. ‘Tracts on Various Subjects in the Law and History of England,’ Bath, 1810, 8vo. This volume contains: i. On Constructive Treason; ii. On the Judgment in High Treason; iii. On the Right of Succession to the Crown in the reign of Elizabeth; iv. On the Constitution of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII; v. On the Non-Obstante; vi. (a reprint of No. 2.); vii. An Inquiry into the History of the Laws of Oleron. 5. ‘An Essay on the Character of Henry the Fifth when Prince of Wales,’ London, 1813, 8vo; a little volume, which still preserves its value. 6. ‘Of the King's title of Defender of the Faith,’ contributed to ‘Archæologia,’ xix. 1–10, in May 1817. 7. ‘A Treatise on the Constitution of Parliament in the reign of Edward the First,’ Bath, 1818, 8vo. He was also one of the editors of ‘The Statutes of the Realm’ in the edition of 1811.
[Information kindly supplied by H. W. Lawrence, esq., sub-treasurer of the Inner Temple; Watt's Bibliotheca, ii. 622 e; Brit. Mus. Cat.]