Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilmot, John Eardley (1709-1792)
WILMOT, Sir JOHN EARDLEY (1709–1792), chief justice of the common pleas, second son of Robert Wilmot of Osmaston, Derbyshire, by Ursula, daughter of Sir Samuel Marow, bart., of Berkswell, Warwickshire, was born at Derby on 16 Aug. 1709. Sir Robert Wilmot, bart. (so created on 19 Sept. 1772 in recognition of long service as secretary to successive lords-lieutenant of Ireland) was his elder brother. The brothers were grandsons of Robert Wilmot, M.P. for Derby 1690–5, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Eardley of Eardley, Staffordshire. Their great-grandfather was Sir Nicholas Wilmot, serjeant-at-law (knighted at Hampton Court on 20 July 1674), whose elder brother Edward was grandfather of the eminent physician Sir Edward Wilmot [q. v.]
The future chief justice received his earlier education at the free school, Derby, and, like several other judges [cf. Noel, William; Parker, Sir Thomas; Willes, Sir John], at King Edward's school, Lichfield, where he was slightly senior to David Garrick and contemporary with Samuel Johnson. In 1724 he was removed to Westminster school, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Henry Bilson Legge, the future chancellor of the exchequer. At Cambridge, where he soon afterwards matriculated from Trinity Hall, he did not graduate, but acquired a taste for learned leisure which he never lost. His predilection was for the church, and it was only in deference to his father's wishes that he adopted the legal profession. During his residence at Trinity Hall, however, he dutifully studied the civil law, and in June 1732 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple. In 1745 he was elected F.S.A.
Wilmot soon made a distinguished figure both in the courts of common law and at the parliamentary bar (in election petition cases), but found the profession uncongenial. In 1753 he refused silk, and in the following year he retired to his native place with the intention of confining himself to local practice. Early in 1755, however, he was lured back to Westminster by the offer of a puisne judgeship in the king's bench, and, having been knighted and invested with the coif, was sworn in as justice (11 Feb.) He proved so efficient a puisne that when, on the resignation of Lord Hardwicke, it became necessary to put the great seal in commission, he was nominated one of the commissioners [cf. Smythe, Sir Sidney Stafford, and Willes, Sir John]. This office he held with increasing credit from 19 Nov. 1756 to 20 June 1757, when the seal was delivered to Lord-keeper Henley [see Henley, Robert, first Earl of Northington].
After eight years more of service in the king's bench, Wilmot began again to think of retirement; but the easy post of chief justice of Chester, which he hoped to secure, proved unobtainable, while that of chief justice of the common pleas was literally thrust upon him on the elevation of Lord Camden to the woolsack. After some demur he accepted the proffered dignity, and was sworn in accordingly on 20 Aug. 1766. He was sworn of the privy council on 10 Sept. following. As puisne Wilmot followed Mansfield's lead in the cases which arose out of the publication of Wilkes's celebrated ‘North Briton’ No. 45 [cf. Wilkes, John]. As chief justice assistant to the House of Lords during the proceedings on Wilkes's writ of error he sustained (16 Jan. 1769) Mansfield's judgments in the king's bench. In the common pleas, when Wilkes's long-delayed action against Lord Halifax came on for hearing (10 Nov. 1769), he sought to temper justice with mercy by directing the jury that, though precedent did not justify the issue of the general warrant, it ought to be taken into account in mitigation of damages.
Wilmot thrice declined the great seal: once on the dismissal of Lord Camden, again on the death of Charles Yorke [q. v.] and once more pending the subsequent commission [cf. Bathurst, Henry, 1714–1794]. Unlike Yorke, Wilmot had no such party ties—he had held aloof from politics throughout his career—as rendered his refusal of office obligatory; and no one but himself doubted his capacity. His refusal was dictated by the same pococurantism, now inveterate and reinforced by failing health, which he had twice before exhibited. It was the more to be regretted by reason of the glaring incompetence of the commissioners. But there is no reason to suppose that in Wilmot the country lost a great chancellor. His understanding was indeed sound and strong and his learning extensive, but there is no evidence that he possessed the subtlety and originality which characterise the masters of equity.
Wilmot resigned the chief-justiceship on 26 Jan. 1771. He at first declined all recompense for his services, but at length accepted a pension of 2,400l. He continued to take part in the judicial business of the privy council until 1782, when he withdrew entirely from public life. He died at his house in Great Ormond Street, London, on 5 Feb. 1792. His remains were interred in Berkswell church. By his wife Sarah (m. in 1743), daughter of Thomas Rivett, M.P. for Derby 1748–54, Wilmot had, with two daughters, three sons. The second son, John Eardley-Wilmot [q. v.], succeeded to his estates. Robert, the eldest son, died married in the East Indies.
Wilmot's decisions are reported by Burrow and Wilson. His own ‘Notes of Opinions and Judgments delivered in different Courts,’ edited by his son John Eardley-Wilmot, appeared at London in 1802, 4to. Some of his letters are printed in his ‘Memoirs’ (see infra; and cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 359, 6th Rep. App. p. 242).
Engravings from portraits by Reynolds and Dance are in the British Museum and prefixed to the works above mentioned.
[John Eardley-Wilmot's Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Knight, with some Original Letters, 1802, London, 4to (2nd edit. with additions, 1811); Le Neve's Pedigrees of the Knights (Harl. Soc.), p. 291; Kimber and Johnson's Baronetage, iii. 151; Gent. Mag. 1755 p. 92, 1792 i. 187; Ann. Reg. 1765 p. 59, 1766 pp. 165, 166, 1771 p. 71, 1772 p. 162; Lysons's Mag. Brit. vol. v. p. lxvi; Harwood's Lichfield, p. 499; Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ed. Holland, ii. 273; Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ed. Le Marchant, and Russell Barker, 1894, and Letters, ed. Cunningham; Grenville Papers, ed. Smith, iii. 46, iv. 110, 115, 392; Grafton's Autobiography, ed. Anson; Correspondence of George III with Lord North, ed. Donne, p. 53; Harris's Life of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke; Wynne's Serjeant-at-Law; Hardy's Cat. of Chancellors; Howell's State Trials, xix. 1027, 1127, 1407; Law Mag. viii. 356; Campbell's Chief Justices; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Foster's Baronetage.]