THURLOW, EDWARD THURLOW, 1ST BARON ( 731 '806) , English lord chancellor, was born at Bracon Ash, in the county of Norfolk, on Dec. 9, 1731, the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow. He was educated at Canterbury Grammar school and Caius college, Cambridge, but went down without a degree. In 1754 he went on the western circuit and after a success ful brush with Fletcher Norton his reputation rose. He took silk in 1761, and in 1768 became M.P. for Tavistock in the Tory interest. The next year he led for the plaintiff in the Douglas peerage case. In 1770 he was made solicitor-general, and sup ported the Government views against the rights of juries in libel cases (R. v. Miller, 20 St. Tr. 870) and the liberty of the press (16 Parl. Hist. 1144), in 1770, he became attorney-general. Politically he was factious and violent ; he was a venomous oppo nent of the American colonies, he made a savage speech in aggra vation of punishment in the Horne Tooke case (2o St. Tr. 777), and was opposed to all interference with the slave trade. In 1778 he became lord chancellor with a peerage. His position in the Lords was almost autocratic, and he continued to oppose the reforming schemes of Burke. Under Rockingham and Shelburne he remained chancellor; under the coalition he worked in oppo sition for the king; got the India bill rejected; and returned to the woolsack under Pitt (1783). Finally he came out openly in
opposition to the National Debt Redemption scheme. Pitt then insisted on his dismissal (1792), and he retired with the title of Baron Thurlow of Thurlow. He continued to speak in the Lords till 18o2 and died at Brighton on Sept. 12, 1806.
Thurlow was a master of caustic wit, habitually displayed in profanity. His judicial and his ecclesiastical patronage were wisely exercised; he was the patron of Dr. Johnson and of Crabbe; and was the first to detect the great legal merits of Eldon. Thurlow's personal appearance was striking. His dark complexion, harsh but regular features, severe and dignified de meanour, piercing black eyes, and bushy eyebrows, doubtless contributed to his political eminence, and provoked the sarcasm of Fox that he looked wiser than any man ever was.
See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vii. ; Foss's Judges of England, viii. 374-385; Public Characters (1798) ; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 283 ; 3rd series, vol. iii. p. 122 ; Reports of his decisions by Brown, Dickens and Vesey (jun.) ; Brougham's Statesmen of the Time of George III.