Sir John Taylor Coleridge (9 July 1790 – 11 February 1876) was an
English judge, the second son of Captain
James Coleridge and nephew of the poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Life
He was born at
Tiverton,
Devon, and was educated at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he had a reputedly brilliant career. He graduated in 1812 and was soon after made a
fellow of
Exeter College. In 1819 he was
called to the bar at the
Middle Temple and practised for some years on the western circuit.
In 1824, on
William Gifford's retirement, he assumed the editorship of the
Quarterly Review, resigning it a year afterwards in favour of
John Gibson Lockhart. In 1825 he published a well regarded edition of
William Blackstone's
Commentaries, and in 1832 he was made a
serjeant-at-law and
recorder of
Exeter. In 1835 he was appointed one of the judges of the
King's Bench. In 1852 his university created him a
DCL, and in 1858 he resigned his judgeship, and was made a member of the
Privy Council. In 1869, he produced his
Memoir of the Rev. John Keble, whose friend he had been since their college days, a third edition of which was issued within a year. He died at
Ottery St. Mary, Devon, leaving two sons and...
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