Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langmead, Thomas Pitt
LANGMEAD, afterwards TASWELL-LANGMEAD, THOMAS PITT (1840–1882), writer on constitutional law and history, born in 1840, was son of Thomas Langmead, by Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Cock Taswell, a descendant of an old family formerly settled at Limington, Somerset. He was educated at King's College, London, the inns of court, and St. Mary Hall, Oxford. He entered on 9 May 1860 the Inner Temple, and 9 July 1862 Lincoln's Inn, where he took the Tancred studentship, and in Easter term 1863 was called to the bar. At Oxford he graduated B.A. in 1866, taking first class honours in law and modern history. The same year he was awarded the Stanhope prize for an essay on the reign of Richard II (printed Oxford 1868), and in 1887 the Vinerian scholarship.
Langmead practised as a conveyancer, and was appointed in 1873 tutor in constitutional law and legal history at the inns of court. He also held the post of revising barrister under the River Lea Conservancy Acts, and for seven years preceding his death was joint editor of the 'Law Magazine and Review.' In 1882 he was appointed professor of English constitutional law and legal history at University College, London, and died unmarried at Brighton on 8 Dec. the same year. He was buried at Nunhead cemetery. Langmead assumed in 1864 the name of Taswell as an additional surname, and was thenceforth known as Taswell-Langmead.
In 1858 Langmead edited for the Camden Society 'Sir Edward Lake's Account of his Interviews with Charles I, on being created a Baronet' (Camden Miscell. vol. iv.), and contributed to 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. vi. 380, the outline of a scheme for the better preservation of parochial records, which he long afterwards developed in a pamphlet entitled 'Parish Registers: a Plea for their Preservation,' 1872. He contributed an article on the same topic to the 'Law Magazine and Review' in May 1878, and drafted Mr. W. C. Borlase's abortive Parish Registers Bill of 1882. His only other important contribution to the 'Law Magazine and Review' was an article on 'The Representative Peerage of Scotland and Ireland,' May 1876. In 1875 he published 'English Constitutional History: a Text-book for Students and others,' London, 8vo, a valuable manual, evincing some original research, of which a second edition appeared in 1880, a third in 1886 (revised by C. H. E. Carmichael), and a fourth in 1890.
[Solicitor's Journal, xxvii. 134; Law Journal, xvii. 700; Law Times, lxxiv. 218; Law Mag. and Review, 4th ser. viii. 141; Cal. Univ. Oxford, 1892, pp. 38, 59 175; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 380, 6th ser. vi. 500; Misc. Gen. et Herald. new ser. i. 255; Inns of Court Cal. 1878.]