Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley

Lord Lindley

Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley SL PC FRS (29 November 1828 – 9 December 1921) was an English judge.

Early life

He was the second son of the botanist John Lindley, born at Acton Green, London. He was educated at University College School, and studied for a time at University College London.

Legal career

He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1850, and began practice in the Court of Chancery. In 1855 he published An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence, consisting of a translation of the general part of Thibaut's System des Pandekten Rechts, with copious notes. In 1860 he published in two volumes his Treatise on the Law of Partnership, including its Application to Joint Stock and other Companies, and in 1862 a supplement including the Companies Act 1862. This work has since been developed into two textbooks well known to lawyers as Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership.

Taking silk

He took silk in February 1872.^[1] In 1874 he was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, of which he was treasurer in 1894.

Court of Common Pleas

In 1875 he was appointed to be a Serjeant-at-law^[2][3] and a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,^[2][3] the appointment of a chancery barrister to a common-law court being justified by the fusion of common law and equity then shortly to be brought about, in theory at all events, by the Judicature Acts.

Court of Appeal

In 1875, he was knighted.^[4][5] In 1880 he became a justice of the Queen's Bench and in 1881 he was raised to be a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal^[6] and was sworn of the Privy Council.^[7]

Master of the Rolls and Lord of Appeal in Ordinary

In 1897, Lord Justice Lindley succeeded Lord Esher as Master of the Rolls,^[8][9] and in 1900 he was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary^[10][11] with a life peerage and the title of Baron Lindley, of East Carleton in the County of Norfolk.^[10][11] He resigned the judicial post in 1905.

Lord Lindley was the last serjeant-at-law appointed, and the last judge to wear the serjeant's coif, or rather the black patch representing it, on the judicial wig.

Family

He married Sarah Katharine, daughter of Edward John Teale of Leeds, on 5 Aug 1858.^[12] He died at home in East Carleton, near Norwich in 1921. They had nine children, including diplomat Sir Francis Oswald Lindley.

Styles and arms

Styles of address

• 1828–1872: Mr Nathaniel Lindley
• 1872–1875: Mr Nathaniel Lindley QC
• 1875: Mr Nathaniel Lindley QC SL
• 1875–1881: Sir Nathaniel Lindley QC SL
• 1881–1900: The Rt Hon. Sir Nathaniel Lindley QC SL
• 1900–1901: The Rt Hon. The Lord Lindley PC QC SL
• 1901–1921: The Rt Hon. The Lord Lindley PC KC SL

Coat of arms

Arms of Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley

Coronet Coronet of a Baron Crest In front of a Pelican in her piety Argent, vulning herself proper, and charged with a Pheon point downwards Or, three Quatrefoils fesswise Or. Escutcheon Argent, on an Chief nebuly Azure, a Quatrefoil between two Griffin’s Heads erased Argent. Supporters Dexter: a Griffin wings elevated Argent, standing on a Fasces proper. Sinister: a Pelican wings elevated Argent, vulning herself and standing on a Fasces proper. Motto SIS FORTIS (May you be brave)

Writing

Lord Lindley published two notable works, Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership.^[13] The latter is still published today, as Lindley and Banks on Partnership, now in its 19th edition (2013).^[14]

Cases

• Knox v Gye (1872)
• Creen v Wright (1875–76) LR 1 CPD 591
• Parker v South Eastern Railway (1877) 2 CPD 416
• Byrne v Van Tienhoven [1880] 5 CPD 344
• Speight v Gaunt (1883) 9 App Cas 1
• Isle of Wight Rly Co v Tahourdin (1884) LR 25 Ch D 320 - a UK company law case on removing directors under the Companies Clauses Act 1845.
• Foakes v Beer (Lindley sitting in the Court of Appeal) [1884] UKHL 1, [1881-85] All ER Rep 106, (1884) 9 App Cas 605; 54 LJQB 130; 51 LT 833; 33 WR 233 - a leading case from the House of Lords on the legal concept of consideration
• In re Whiteley (1886) 33 Ch D 347, 355
• In re Addlestone Linoleum Co (1887) 37 Ch D 191
• Allcard v Skinner (1887) 36 Ch D 145
• Robinson v Kilvert (1889) LR 41 ChD 88
• Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1892] EWCA Civ 1, [1893] 1 QB 256, [1892] 2 QB 484 (QBD) - an advertisement containing certain terms to get a reward constituted a binding unilateral offer that could be accepted by anyone who performed its terms.
• Salomon v Salomon [1897] AC 22
• South Hetton Coal Co v Haswell, Shotton and Easington Coal and Coke Co [1898] 1 Ch. 465
• Allen v Gold Reefs of West Africa Ltd [1900] 1 Ch 656
• Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426
• Quinn v Leathem [1901] AC 495
• Scottish Free Church case [1904] AC 515
• Colls v Home and Colonial Stores (1904)
• Shepheard v Broome [1904] AC 342

Books

• Nathaniel Lindley, An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence; Being a Translation of the General Part of Thibaut’s System des Pandekten Rechts (William Maxwell, 1855)

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lindley, Nathaniel Lindley, Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 178.

1. The London Gazette: no. 23825. p. 466. 6 February 1872.
2. The London Gazette: no. 24211. p. 2773. 25 May 1875.
3. The Edinburgh Gazette: no. 8584. p. 349. 28 May 1875.
4. The London Gazette: no. 24209. p. 2681. 18 May 1875.
5. The Edinburgh Gazette: no. 8582. p. 333. 21 May 1875.
6. The London Gazette: no. 25033. p. 5353. 1 November 1881.
7. The London Gazette: no. 25050. p. 6757. 20 December 1881.
8. The London Gazette: no. 26903. p. 5869. 26 October 1897.
9. The Edinburgh Gazette: no. 10931. p. 1026. 29 October 1897.
10. The London Gazette: no. 27192. p. 3070. 15 May 1900.
11. The Edinburgh Gazette: no. 11198. p. 494. 18 May 1900.
12. "The Royal Society: Library and Archive catalogue: surname Lindley". Retrieved 10 July 2011.
13. s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lindley, Nathaniel Lindley, Baron

External links