Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Arnould, Joseph
ARNOULD, Sir JOSEPH (1814–1886), chief justice of Bombay and author, eldest son of Joseph Arnould, M.D., was born at Camberwell on 12 Nov. 1814. His father was owner of White Cross in Berkshire, and deputy lieutenant of the county; the property eventually passed to Sir Joseph. Educated at Charterhouse, he went to Oxford, where he was admitted at Wadham College on 4 Oct. 1831. He was Goodridge exhibitioner 1833, 1834, 1835, and Hody (Greek) exhibitioner 1833 to 1835. In 1834 he won the Newdigate prize for English verse, the subject being 'The Hospice of St. Bernard.' This was recited by him on 11 June, when the Duke of Wellington was installed chancellor of the university. Arnould thereupon interpolated two lines to the effect that he whom
' … a world could not subdue
Bent to thy prowess, chief of Waterloo'
(Pycroft, Oxford Memories, ii. 4). Writing to his wife, John Wilson Croker, who was present, styled the verses 'very good,' adding that, after the last word had been spoken, the whole assembly started up, and 'some people appeared to me to go out of their senses—literally to go mad' (The Croker Papers, ii. 228).
Arnould graduated B. A. on 13 May 1836, having taken a first class. In 1840 he was elected moderator of philosophy; he became probationer fellow on 30 June 1838, and on 11 Jan. 1841 he ceased to be a fellow owing to his marriage, and he removed his name on 25 June 1841. He had been entered at the Middle Temple on 10 Nov. 1836, and he was called to the bar on 19 Nov. 1841. For a time he shared chambers with Alfred Domett [q. v.], the poet Browning's 'Waring.' He practised as a special pleader, and went the home circuit. He became a contributor to Douglas Jerrold's 'Weekly Newspaper,' many of the verses on social questions being from his pen. He was afterwards engaged as a leader-writer for the 'Daily News.' He continued to practise at the bar, and in 1848 he gave to the world a work in two volumes on the 'Law of Marine Insurance and Average.' It was so well received as to be reprinted at Boston, in America, two years later with some additions.
In 1859 Arnould accepted at the hands of Lord Stanley, secretary of state for India, a seat on the bench of the supreme court of Bombay. He was knighted on 2 Feb. 1859. He was reappointed to a like office in 1862, when the supreme court was converted into the high court of judicature. He retired in 1869, when the natives of Bombay presented an address in praise of his services, and founded an Arnould scholarship in their university to commemorate what he had done to promote the study of Mohammedan and Hindu law. A fruit of his leisure after his return to England was the 'Memoir of the first Lord Denman,' in two volumes, which was published in 1873.
Arnould died at Florence on 16 Nov. 1886. He was twice married: first, in 1841, to Maria, eldest daughter of H. G. Ridgeway; and, secondly, in 1860, to Ann Pitcairn, daughter of Major Carnegie, C.B.
[Private information; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; List of Carthusians, p. 7; Gardiner's Registers of Wadham College, ii. 346, 347; Times, 18 Feb. 1886.]