Arthur Kekewich

Sir Arthur Kekewich (26 July 1832 – 22 November 1907) was an English barrister and High Court judge. The frequency at which his opinions were appealed has given rise to many stories, though according to a modern assessment he "seems to have been a man who has suffered unfairly in the public reputation and [his] appointment was one which was unlucky rather than discreditable." Early life and career Kekewich was born at Peamore, near Exeter, to an old Devonshire family. He was the second son of Samuel Trehawke Kekewich of Peamore House, the Member of Parliament for Exeter in 1826 and for South Devon in 1858, by his first wife Agatha Maria Sophia, daughter of John Langston of Sarsden, Oxfordshire. His elder brother was Trehawke Kekewich (1823–1909), who inherited the family estate, and his younger half-brother was Sir George William Kekewich, the first permanent secretary of the Board of Education and MP for Exeter (1906–10). Sir Trehawke Kekewich, Bt. (1851–1932), the long-standing Recorder of Tiverton, and Major-General Sir Robert Kekewich, CB, the defender of Kimberley, were his nephews. Educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 11 March 1850, Kekewich was placed in the second class by the mathematical moderators in 1852, and graduated BA in 1854 with a first class in literæ humaniores and a second in the final school of mathematics. In the same year he was elected to a fellowship at Exeter College, which he held until his marriage on 23 September 1858, with Marianne, daughter of the lawyer James William Freshfield, founder of the law firm of Freshfields. He proceeded to the MA in 1856. Having entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn on 8 November 1854, he was called to the bar on 7 June 1858. His connection through his wife with the firm of Freshfield & Son, solicitors, gave him an excellent start, and brought him at an early period in his professional career the post of junior standing counsel to the Bank of England; for many years he was in the enjoyment of one of the largest junior practices at the Chancery bar. He was made QC on 4 May 1877, and a bencher of his inn on 4 July 1881.