KENYON, LLOYD KENYON, 1ST BARON (1732-1802), lord chief-justice of England, was born at Gredington, Flint shire, on Oct. 5, 1732. Educated at Ruthin grammar school, he was in his 15th year articled to an attorney at Nantwich, Cheshire. In 1750 he entered at Lincoln's Inn, London, and in 1756 was called to the bar. As for several years he was almost unemployed, he utilized his leisure in taking notes of the cases argued in the court of king's bench, which he afterwards pub lished. In 1780 he was made king's counsel. He showed con spicuous ability in the cross-examination of the witnesses at the trial of Lord George Gordon, but his speech was so tactless that the verdict of acquittal was really due to the brilliant effort of Erskine, the junior counsel. This want of tact, indeed, often betrayed Kenyon into striking blunders; as an advocate he was, moreover, deficient in ability of statement; and his position was achieved chiefly by hard work, a good knowledge of law and several lucky friendships.
Through the influence of Lord Thurlow, Kenyon in 1780 entered the House of Commons as member for Hindon, and in 1782 he was appointed attorney-general in Lord Buckingham's administration, an office which he continued to hold under Pitt.
In 1784 he received the mastership of the rolls, and was created a baronet. In 1788 he was appointed lord chief justice as suc cessor to Lord Mansfield, and the same year was raised to the peerage as Baron Kenyon of Gredington. As he had made many enemies, his elevation was by no means popular with the bar; but on the bench, in spite of his capricious and choleric temper, he proved himself not only an able lawyer, but a judge of rare and inflexible impartiality. He died at Bath, on April 4, 1802.
Kenyon's contribution to the development of English law was a negative one. After the almost excessively progressive rational izing policy of Mansfield, Kenyon in the king's bench and Eldon in the chancery initiated a period of conservatism, and the period of judicial adaptation of the law to modern conditions comes to an end, being replaced by the legislative reforms of the 19th century.
See Life by Hon. G. T. Kenyon, 1873.