38 Facts About William Garrow

William Garrow introduced the phrase "presumed innocent until proven guilty", insisting that defendants' accusers and their evidence be thoroughly tested in court.

William Garrow was elected to Parliament in 1805 for Gatton, a rotten borough, and became Solicitor General for England in 1812 and Attorney General for England a year later.

William Garrow was not particularly successful in the commercial cases the Exchequer specialised in, but when on Assize, used his criminal law knowledge from his years at the Bar to great effect.

William Garrow is best known for his criminal defence work, which, through the example he set with his aggressive defence of clients, helped establish the modern adversarial system in use in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other former British colonies.

William Garrow is known for his impact on the rules of evidence, leading to the best evidence rule.

William Garrow's work was cited as recently as 1982 in the Supreme Court of Canada and 2006 in the Irish Court of Criminal Appeal.

William Garrow's father David was born at a farm called Knockside, Aberlour approximately 50 miles northwest of Aberdeen.

William Garrow was educated at his father's school in Monken Hadley, The Priory, which emphasised preparing students for commercial careers such as in the East India Company.

William Garrow showed potential, being noted as "attentive and diligent in the performance of the technical and practical duties of the office", and Southouse recommended that he become a solicitor or barrister; as a result, when he was 17, he became a pupil of a Mr Crompton, a special pleader.

William Garrow started as a criminal defence barrister at the Old Bailey, in a time where many defendants became increasingly reliant on barristers to prevent their conviction.

When James Wingrove was charged with theft and violence in the course of a highway robbery in 1784, Garrow's cross-examination of William Grove got him to admit that he was perjuring himself in an attempt to get a reward, and that Wingrove had not robbed the two injured parties.

William Garrow showed a dislike of most thief-takers, of which Grove was one, although he did not treat the Bow Street Runners and other professionals with contempt.

William Garrow established that Troughton was uncertain about how he lost his hat, despite his attempts to claim that the defendants knocked it off him, and after four witnesses gave character evidence the defendants were found not guilty.

William Garrow made much use of jury nullification to limit the punishment for his convicted clients, in a time when many crimes carried the death penalty.

In 1784 a pair of women were arrested for stealing fans worth 15 shillings, meaning a conviction would result in the death penalty; William Garrow convinced the jury to convict the women of stealing 4 shillings worth of fans, therefore changing the sentence to twelve months of hard labour.

William Garrow soon developed a large practice, working criminal trials at the Old Bailey and outside London as both defence counsel and prosecutor.

The court records run to 367 pages, and William Garrow was deeply involved as prosecuting counsel; indeed, his opening speech on 24 February 1806 is considered by Braby to be one of his best.

William Garrow spoke again on 18 June 1806 on a legal technicality, and after that did not intervene for another six years.

William Garrow ran particularly foul of Sir Samuel Romilly, who was one of those looking to reform a penal code many claimed was not working.

William Garrow served as Chief Justice of Chester from 1814 to 1817.

William Garrow became involved in the repeal of the Corn Laws, voting for the measure, and sponsored legislation to control surgical practice in the United Kingdom; the bill did not pass into law.

William Garrow eventually resigned as Attorney General and as a member of parliament in 1817, when he was appointed one of the Barons of the Exchequer.

On 6 May 1817, William Garrow was made a Baron of the Exchequer and Serjeant-at-Law, succeeding Richard Richards, and resigning his seat in Parliament and his position as Attorney General.

William Garrow was not a particularly distinguished judge in the Exchequer, mainly due to a lack of knowledge of the finer points of law.

William Garrow retired on 22 February 1832, replaced by John Gurney, and was made a Privy Councillor on retirement as a measure of the Government's respect for him.

William Garrow died at home on 14 September 1840, aged 80.

Thomas Hague has suggested that Dore was an Irish noblewoman William Garrow had seduced, but the only intent of his writings was to disparage William Garrow, and there is no evidence to support his claim.

William Garrow died on 30 June 1808 after a long illness, and was buried at the Church of St Margaret, Darenth.

David William Garrow was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, earning the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and served as one of the Chaplains to the Prince of Wales.

William Garrow's son, Edward Garrow, was a cricketer and clergyman.

Eliza Sophia Garrow married Samuel Fothergill Lettsom; one of her children, named William Garrow, served as the Consul-General of Uruguay.

The second instruction was ignored: William Garrow was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence, Ramsgate, his parish church.

William Garrow was largely forgotten; although Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife discovered his work a generation later when reading transcripts of Old Bailey cases, there was little academic work on him until the late 20th century.

William Garrow's practice was a further step forward; with his aggressive and forthright style of cross-examination, he promoted a more committed defence of clients, and indirectly reformed the process of advocacy in the 18th century.

In some ways William Garrow was far ahead of his time; he coined the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" in 1791, although the jury refused to accept this principle and it was not confirmed by the courts until much later.

William Garrow influenced the rules of evidence, which were only just beginning to evolve when he started his career.

William Garrow was crucial in insisting on the autonomy of lawyers when adducing evidence, in one case openly arguing with the trial judge to insist that the advocates have independence in submitting it.

When defending Robert Clark, accused of killing John Delew by kicking him in the stomach, William Garrow used a mixture of aggressive cross-examination and medical knowledge to get the prosecution's medical expert to admit that he could not prove how Delew had died.