TALFOURD, SIR THOMAS NOON Eng lish judge and author, the son of a brewer, was born at Reading on May 26, 1795. He was educated at Hendon, and at Reading grammar school. At the age of 18 he was sent to London to study law under Joseph Chitty, the special pleader. Early in 1821 he joined the Oxford circuit, having been called to the bar at the middle Temple in the same year. He became a serjeant at-law in 1835, and a judge of the common pleas in 1849. He was M.P. for Reading, and carried an International Copyright Bill against stormy opposition in 1842. Dickens dedicated the Pickwick Papers to him. On the literary side, he contributed to various magazines, and his legal writings on literary subjects included "On the Principle of Advocacy in the Practice of the Bar" (in the Law Magazine, Jan. 1846), and his famous Speech for the Defendant in the Prosecution, the Queen v. Moxon, for
the Publication of Shelley's Poetical Works (1841).
But Talfourd cannot be said to have gained any position among men of letters until the production of his tragedy Ion, which was privately printed in 1835, and produced in the following year at Covent Garden theatre: Other less successful plays followed. Talfourd died in court during the performance of his judicial duties, at Stafford, on March 13, In addition to the writings above-mentioned, Talfourd was the author of The Letters of Charles Lamb, with a Sketch of his Life (1837); Recollections of a First Visit to the Alps (1841) ; Vaca tion Rambles and Thoughts, comprising recollections of three continental tours in the vacations of 1841, 1842 and 1843 (2 vols., 1844) ; and Final Memorials of Charles Lamb (1849-5o).