COTTENHAM, CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PEPYS, I St EARL OF (I 78 r-1851), lord chancellor of England, was born in London on April 29, 1781. He was the second son of Sir Wil liam W. Pepys, a master in chancery, who was descended from John Pepys, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, a great-uncle of Samuel Pepys, the diarist. Educated at Harrow and Trinity college, Cambridge, Pepys was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1804. He practised at the chancery bar and was made a K.C. in 1826. He sat in parliament, successively, for Higham Ferrars and Malton, was appointed solicitor-general in 1834, and in the same year became master of the rolls. On the formation of Lord Melbourne's second administration in April 1835, the great seal was for a time in commission, but eventually Pepys, who had been one of the commissioners, was appointed lord chancellor (Jan. 1836) with the title of Baron Cottenham. He held office till the defeat of the ministry in 1841. In 1846 he again became lord chancellor in Lord John Russell's administration. Shortly before his retirement in 185o he had been created Viscount Crow hurst and earl of Cottenham. He died at Pietra Santa, Italy, on April 29, 1851.
Both as a lawyer and as a judge, Lord Cottenham, though an indifferent speaker, was remarkable for his mastery of the prin ciples of equity. His only important contribution to the statute book was the Judgments Act, 1838, which amended the law for the relief of insolvent debtors.