Jelinger Cookson Symons (27 August 1809 – 7 April 1860) was an English barrister, school inspector and writer.

Early life

Jelinger Cookson Symons was born at

West Ilsley West Ilsley is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The population of the village at the 2011 United Kingdom Census, 2011 Census was 332. Location and amenities It is situated in West Berkshire, north of Newbury, Berkshire, Newbur ...

, Berkshire, on 27 August 1809; his father Jelinger Symons was a cleric known as a naturalist. He was educated at

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1832.

Public life

In 1835 Symons received a commission from the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

to inquire into the state of the hand-loom weavers and manufacturers. He travelled for it in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and Scotland, and parts of Switzerland. He then held a tithe commissionership, and was a commissioner to inquire into the state of the mining population of the north of England. In 1843 Symons 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

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

. He went the

Oxford circuit The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

, and attended the Gloucester quarter sessions. During this period of his life he was editor of the ''Law Magazine'', up to its union with the ''Law Review'' in 1856. In 1846 the Committee of Council on Education appointed him as one of the commissioners to collect information on the state of education in Wales. The reports of the commissioners were published in 1848. The publication of the reports in Wales caused uproar because of the perception that they disparaged the Welsh, which incited the criticism of treachery, see

Treachery of the Blue Books The Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales, commonly referred to in Wales as "The Treason of the Blue Books" or "The Treachery of the Blue Books" () or just the "Blue Books" is a three-part publication by t ...

. In 1848 Lord Lansdowne made Symons one of Her Majesty's permanent inspectors of schools, a post he retained through life. He also concerned himself with the establishment of reformatories for juvenile criminals, drawing attention to the "colony" at Mettray in France. Symons died at Malvern House,

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the civil parish of Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, in the Malvern Hills District, Malvern Hills district, in the county of Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of O ...

, on 7 April 1860.

Works

Symons's works include: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * With Richard Griffiths Welford and others, Symons published ''Reports of Cases in the Law of Real Property and Conveyancing argued and determined in all the Courts of Law and Equity'', 1846.

Family

Symons married in 1845 Angelina, daughter of Edward Kendall. They had Jelinger Edward, born in 1847, and other children.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Symons, Jelinger Cookson 1809 births 1860 deaths English barristers English magazine editors English writers 19th-century English journalists English male journalists 19th-century English male writers 19th-century English lawyers