The New Student's Reference Work/Eldon, John Scott

El′don, John Scott, an English lord-chancellor, better known as Lord Eldon, was born in 1751. After studying at Oxford University for some years, he took to the law and soon gained great success as a lawyer. He entered the house of commons in 1783, was knighted and appointed solicitor-general in 1788, and made attorney-general in 1793. In 1799 he was appointed chief-justice of the court of common pleas, and in 1801, as Baron Eldon, he became lord-chancellor, a position he held, with only a short intermission, for twenty-six years. He died in 1838.