Charles Runnington (1751–1821), serjeant-at-law, born in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

on 29 August 1751 (and probably son of John Runnington, mayor of

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

in 1754), was educated under private tutors, and after some years of

special pleading Special pleading is an informal fallacy wherein a person claims an exception to a general or universal principle, but the exception is unjustified. It applies a double standard. In the classic distinction among material fallacies, cognitive fa ...

was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

Hilary term Hilary term is the second academic term of the University of OxfordMarshalsea Court The Marshalsea Court (or Court of the Marshalsea, also known as the Court of the Verge or the Court of the Marshal and Steward) was a court associated with the Royal Household in England. Associated with, but distinct from, the Marshalsea Court ...

. On 27 May 1815 he was appointed to the chief-commissionership in insolvency, which he resigned in 1819. He died at

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

on 18 January 1821. Runnington married twice—in 1777, Anna Maria, youngest sister of Sir

Samuel Shepherd Sir Samuel Shepherd KS PC FRSE (6 April 1760 – 3 November 1840) was a British barrister, judge and politician who served as Attorney General for England and Lord Chief Baron of the Scottish Court of Exchequer. Early life and career S ...

, by whom he had a son and a daughter; secondly, in 1783, Mrs. Wetherell, widow of Charles Wetherell of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. His only son, Charles Henry Runnington, died on 20 November 1810.

Works

Runnington, besides editing certain well-known legal works by Sir

Geoffrey Gilbert Geoffrey Winzer Gilbert (28 May 1914 – 1989) was an English flautist, who was a leading influence on British flute-playing, introducing a more flexible style, based on French techniques, with metal instruments replacing the traditional wood. H ...

Sir Matthew Hale Sir Matthew Hale (1 November 1609 – 25 December 1676) was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise ''Historia Placitorum Coronæ'', or ''The History of the Pleas of the Crown''. Born to a barrister and ...

and

Owen Ruffhead Owen Ruffhead (1723 – 25 October 1769) was a miscellaneous writer, and the descendant of a Welsh family who were bakers to King George I of Great Britain. Legal consultant and writer The junior Owen Ruffhead was born in Piccadilly. When still a ...

was author of ''A Treatise on the Action of Ejectment'' (founded on Gilbert's work), London, 1781,

8vo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

, which was recast and revised as ''The History, Principles, and Practice of the Legal Remedy by Ejectment, and the resulting Action for Mesne Profits'' (London, 1795, 8vo), 2nd edition by William Ballantine, published in 1820. Runnington edited: *The History of the Common Law, by Sir Matthew Hale, Fourth Edition, 1779. The fifth edition was published in 1794, and the sixth edition was published in 1820. *The Statutes at Large, by Owen Ruffhead.For a review of this edition, see (1788) 78 The Monthly Revie
234
(March 1788)

References

* *Charles F Partington (ed). "Runnington, Charles". The British Cyclopaedia of Biography. 1838. Volume 2. Page 84

The British Cyclopaedia. Volume 10
Page 843
*"Runnington (Charles)". The Georgian Era. Vizitelly, Branston and Co. Fleet Street, London. 1833. Volume 2
Page 544
*H G W, "Memoir of Charles Runnington, Esq" (1817) 71 The European Magazine 379 (May 1817

(Portrait, by T Blood, precedes p 379) *O'Sullivan and Fuller (eds). The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 2006. Volume 12
Page 109
*"The Repository, No XL" (1817) 71 European Magazin
503
(June 1817) *Report from the Select Committee on the Insolvent Debtors Acts 53 & 54 Geo III. Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed 13 June 1816. Page
5
to 9, 17, 33, 43, 44, 72, 76 to 98, and 115. {{DEFAULTSORT:Runnington, Charles 1751 births 1821 deaths Serjeants-at-law (England) Members of the Inner Temple English legal writers