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'Charles Christopher Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham' (29 April 1781 – 29 April 1851), a lawyer, judge, politician, and eventual Lord Chancellor of England, was born in London, England. He was the second son of Sir William W. Pepys, a master in chancery, who was descended from John Pepys, of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, a great-uncle of Samuel Pepys the diarist. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, Pepys was called to the bar at Lincolns Inn in 1804. Practicing at the chancery bar, his progress was extremely slow, and it was not till twenty-two years after his call that he was made a kings counsel. He sat in Parliament, successively, for Higham Ferrers and Malton, was appointed Solicitor General in 1834, and in the same year became Master of the Rolls. On the formation of Lord Melbourne's second administration in April 1835, the great seal was for a time in commission, but eventually Pepys, who had been one of the commissioners, was appointed Lord Chancellor (January 1836) with the title of 'Baron Cottenham'. He held office until the defeat of the ministry in 1841. In 1846 he again became Lord Chancellor in Lord John Russell's administration. His health, however, had been gradually failing, and he resigned in 1850. Shortly before his retirement, he was created 'Viscount Crowhurst' and 'Earl of Cottenham'. He lived at Prospect Place, Wimbledon from 1831 to 1851 and died at Pietra Santa, in the duchy of Lucca.
Both as a lawyer and as a judge, Lord Cottenham was remarkable for his mastery of the principles of equity. An indifferent speaker, he nevertheless adorned the bench by the soundness of his law and the excellence of his judgments. As a politician, though, he was somewhat of a failure; his only contribution to the statute-book generally considered important was the Judgments Act of 1838, which amended the law for the relief of insolvent debtors.
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