Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pulling, Alexander
PULLING, ALEXANDER (1813–1895), serjeant-at-law and legal author, was the fourth son of George Christopher Pulling, who retired from the naval service with the rank of post-captain and the reputation of a gallant officer. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Moser of Kendal, Westmoreland. He was born at the Court House, St. Arvans, Monmouthshire, on 1 Dec. 1813, and educated at a private school at Llandaff and at the Merchant Taylors' School, which he entered in April 1829. He was admitted on 30 Oct. 1838 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 9 June 1843. He went, first, the western, and afterwards the South Wales circuit, where he became a leader. While yet in his pupilage he published ‘A Practical Treatise on the Laws, Customs, and Regulations of the City and Port of London’ (London, 1842; 2nd edit. 1849), in which he not only concentrated a vast amount of previously inaccessible legal and antiquarian lore, but sketched a bold scheme of metropolitan municipal reform, which in essential particulars anticipated that embodied in the Local Government Act of 1888. In November 1853 he gave evidence before the royal commission on the state of the corporation of London (Parl. Papers H. C. 1854, vol. xxvi.); and in 1855 he was appointed senior commissioner under the Metropolitan Management Act of that year. He frequently represented the city both in court and before parliamentary committees.
Pulling was an energetic member of the Society for Promoting the Amendment of the Law and of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and a principal promoter and original member of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. He advocated the payment of jurors, the relief of parliament by the transference of private-bill business to local authorities (see his article on that subject in Edinburgh Review, January 1855), and the supersession of election petitions by a system of scrutiny as of course. In 1857 he was appointed revising barrister for Glamorgan, and in 1864 was made a serjeant-at-law. From 1867 to 1874 he resided at Newark Park, near Wootton-under-Edge, was in the commission of the peace for Gloucestershire, and took an active part in local administration, acting frequently as deputy county-court judge and commissioner of assize under the Welsh circuit commission. He died on 15 Jan. 1895.
Pulling married, on 30 Aug. 1855, Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Luke Hopkinson, esq., of Bedford Row, Middlesex, by whom he had issue two sons.
Pulling was one of the last surviving members of the Ancient Order of Serjeants-at-Law, of which he wrote the history. His work ‘The Order of the Coif’ (London, 1884, 8vo) is a curious and entertaining contribution to our legal antiquities. His other writings, all of which appeared in London, are as follows: 1. ‘A Practical Compendium of the Law and Usage of Mercantile Accounts,’ 1846, 8vo. 2. ‘Observations on the Disputes at present arising in the Corporation of London,’ 1847, 8vo. 3. ‘A Summary of the Law of Attorneys and Solicitors,’ 1849, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1862. 4. ‘The Law of Joint Stock Companies' Accounts,’ 1850, 8vo. 5. ‘The City of London Corporation Inquiry,’ 1854, 8vo. 6. ‘Private Bill Legislation: Can anything now be done to improve it?’ 1859, 8vo. 7. ‘Proposal for Amendment of the Procedure in Private Bill Legislation,’ 1862, 8vo. 8. ‘Our Law-reporting System: Cannot its Evils be prevented?’ 1863, 8vo. 9. ‘Crime and Criminals: Is the Gaol the only Preventive?’ 1863, 8vo. 10. ‘Our Parliamentary Elections: Can no Laws protect the Honest Voter from the Dishonest?’ 1866, 8vo.
[Times, January 1895; Foster's Men at the Bar; Law List; private information; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Daniel's History and Origin of the Law Reports, 1884.]