Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, Lord St Leonards

ST LEONARDS, Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, Lord (1781–1875), lord chancellor of England, was the son of a hairdresser in Duke Street, Westminster, and was born in February 1781. After practising for some years as a conveyancer, he was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1807, having already published his well-known treatise on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers. In 1822 he was made king’s counsel and chosen a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. He was returned at different times for various boroughs to the House of Commons, where he made himself prominent by his opposition to the Reform Bill of 1832. He was appointed solicitor-general in 1829, was named lord chancellor of Ireland in 1834, and again filled the same office from 1841 to 1846. Under Lord Derby’s first administration in 1852 he became lord chancellor and was raised to the peerage as Lord St Leonards. In this position he devoted himself with energy and vigour to the reform of the law; Lord Derby on his return to power in 1858 again offered him the same office, which from considerations of health he declined. He continued, however, to take an active interest especially in the legal matters that came before the House of Lords, and bestowed his particular attention on the reform of the law of property. He died at Boyle Farm, Thames Ditton, 29th January 1875.

Lord St Leonards was the author of various important legal publications, many of which have passed through several editions. Besides the treatise on purchasers already mentioned, they include Powers, Cases decided by the House of Lords, Gilbert on Uses, New Real Property Laws, and Handybook of Property Law.