Law Amusement
Surreal law facts
The truth is always stranger than fiction.
Suicide to avoid a judicial appointment
In 1770, Charles Yorke (1723-1770) had publicly committed himself to the Whig political party of Charles Wentworth (1730-1782, aka Lord Rockingham). Yorke was a graduate of Cambridge University (1742) and had been called to the bar in 1743.
But the British king, George III, knowing Yorke's father had been chief justice and minister of justice (Lord Chancellor) desperately wanted to bring some instant credibility to his cabinet table.
Knowing Yorke's value to the government, and hoping to keep good men from the government in power, Rockingham made Yorke promise he would not submit to any offer from the opposition's prime minister or the King.
The king asked Yorke to meet him on January 13 and again on January 16. There, he threatened Yorke that if he refused the Lord Chancellorship now, he'd never be offered it again. King George even offered Yorke a peerage; he and his descendants could use the title of Lord Morsden - an irresistible offer to any good class-loving Brit.
Unable to refuse the package, Yorke gave in and accepted to become Lord Chancellor.
But then he visited upon his brother to debrief, only to find Rockingham and other members of his opposition party present. Yorke was violently reproached.
Overwhelmed with shame, he retreated to his home and started drinking. In those few ominous days left to him, his diary had uncharacteristic mentions of suicide.
Finally overwhelmed, three days later, to avoid the appointment as England's chief justice, he took his own life and was found dead in his home, in a pool of blood.
On his desk was discovered the Great Seal of the Lord Chancellor in his house as well as the peerage papers but because he failed to appose the seal on the patent, the peerage failed and was denied his descendants.
Source: www.duhaime.org.
