John Barnard Byles

Sir John Barnard Byles (11 January 1801 – 3 February 1884[1]) was a British barrister, judge and author of books on law and the economy. He published an influential text on bills of exchange in 1829, commonly referred to as "Byles on Bills".[2]

Early life

Byles was the a grandson of Mr Jeremiah Byles (1733-1790), a timber-merchant from Stowmarket, Suffolk, England.

Career

Byles studied law and became a member of the Inner Temple, where he was a pupil of the renowned Joseph Chitty, and became a special pleader.[3] In 1829 he published a seminal work on bills of exchange, A Treatise on the Law of Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes, Bank-Notes, and Cheques, which is commonly referred to as Byles on Bills. He is even said to have named his horse "Bills", so that when approaching, people would utter "Here comes Byles on Bills".[2] He was called to the Bar in November 1831. He joined the Norfolk circuit and in 1840 he was appointed recorder of Buckingham, and then in 1843 became a Serjeant-at-law. In 1857 he was appointed Queen's Serjeant.[3]

Byles once ran as a candidate for Parliament in the Aylesbury constituency, but lost.

In January 1858 he was promoted to the bench and was later made a Knight Bachelor and Justice of the Common Pleas. He often oversaw cases at the Central Criminal Court in London. He was described by the contemporary press as being a judge of the "old school", reminiscent of lawyers from Elizabethan times in his predilection for employing old-fashioned sayings and "saws".[4] He was also a stickler for proper (black) clothing in court, once remarking to Lord Coleridge "I always listen with little pleasure to the arguments of counsel whose legs are encased in light gray trousers".[5] In January 1873 he resigned as a judge due to his failing health. He then became, on 3 March, a member of the Privy Council but he died soon after on 3 February 1884, aged eighty-two.[3] He resided in Hatfield House, Uxbridge.

Personal life

Byles married Hannah Foster in Aug 1828 the daughter of John Foster a merchant of Biggleswade, but she died shortly after the marriage. He married in Aug 1836 Emma Nash Wedd the daughter of Mr Joseph Pattisson Wedd, a solicitor of Royston, but she died in July 1872. Of their children, the eldest son, Walter Barnard, was called to the Bar in 1865 and the second eldest, Maurice Barnard, was called in 1866.[3]

Notable cases

Books

References

  1. ↑ New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
  2. 1 2 The Early History of the Law of Bills and Notes, pages 6-7
  3. 1 2 3 4 Biography
  4. ↑ The Richmond Eclectic, page 544
  5. ↑ In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays, page 179
  6. ↑ History by the Yard
  7. ↑ Horace Bleackley (1929). The hangmen of England: how they hanged and whom they hanged : the life story of "Jack Ketch" through two centuries. Taylor & Francis. p. 218. ISBN 0-7158-1184-3.
  8. ↑ Montagu Williams (1890). "VII". Leaves of a Life. Houghton, Mifflin.
  9. ↑ Google News

External links

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