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     DEATH OF LORD WYNFORD. — To the list of illustrious and celebrated individuals who, since the commencement of the present year, have ceased to be numbered among the living, we have to add the name of William Draper Best, first Baron Wynford. His lordship expired on Tuesday morning, at his seat, Leesons, Kent, aged 78, having been born in 1767. His early politics were of a liberal tendency. His first entrance into Parliament was in the year 1802, when he was elected for Petersfield. In 1813, upon his return for Bridport, we no longer find him the advocate of Liberal opinions, his votes and occasional speeches were henceforward in entire conformity with the wishes of the Tory Government. To this party he continued to adhere; and in 1819 he received the first instalment of the reward for his political services, being raised to the bench as one of the judges of the Court of King's Bench, and received the honour of knighthood. Shortly after he was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which he held until 1825, when he retired upon his pension, and was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Wynford.

Leicester Journal - Friday 14 March 1845

THE OBITUARY

     LORD WYNFORD.—The first Baron of that title, died at his seat, Leasons, Kent, on the 1st of March. So little has his name been before the public for the last ten years, that many of our readers have forgotten or are unaware that he once played a very prominent part in the legal and political world. His last important appearance before the public was in association with the King of Hanover, then Duke of Cumberland, the Lords Kenyon, Londonderry, Roden, Chandos, &c, one of the chief dignitaries of the Orange Institution of Great Britain, a secret society which, for political objects, mixed with semi-religious ceremonies, was to have enrolled upwards of one hundred and forty thousand members in three hundred and eighty lodges in Great Britain only, besides having most extensive ramifications throughout Ireland, British America, and the various colonies. But we will trace more in detail the events of his lordship's life up to this period, collecting the facts as they have been stated by various of our contemporaries.—William Draper, the subject of this memoir, was the son of Thomas Best, Esq, and lineally descended in the female line from a common ancestor with the great Earl of Chatham.—The mother of Lord Wynford was daughter of that Sir William Draper who became so well known as the opponent of "Junius." The place of his birth was Husselbury-Plucknutt, in the county of Somerset, and the date of that occurrence was the 13th December, 1767. He lost his father when he was only three years old. He was sent to the grammar School at Crewkerne. He is said to have been destined for the Church, and was removed at the age of fifteen to Wadham College with a view obtain a fellowship, but after he had resided at the University two years, he became entitled, by the death of a first cousin, to the remaining part of a considerable estate, the whole of which had been once in the possession of his branch the family. He then relinquished all thought of entering into orders; and in his seventeenth year left Oxford. Having determined on adopting the law as his future professional career, he was entered a member of the Society of the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in Michaelmas Term, 1789.—The first cause in which Mr. Best attracted notice was that of Peppin v. Shakspeare. The question to be argued was, "the rights of a lord of a manor in respect to the appropriation of the wastes." Lord Kenyon, the Lord Chief Justice, in delivering the judgment of the court, paid many compliments to the "talents and industry" of Mr. Best. This was a sure precursor of future fame. Mr. Best soon got into extensive practice both on the home circuit, which he selected for his provincial career, and in Westminster-hall. The case of Sinclair, on the prosecution of De Colonne; that Capt. Innis, for shooting a French prisoner, which he argued before the twelve judes; the King v. Despard, also that of Hatfield for attempting to shoot George III in Drury Lane Theatre, with other important cases in which Mr. Best engaged, all show that he was in full practice of the very first-rate description. Mr. Best, by the advice of his friends, assumed the coif in Hilary Term, 1800, and chose for the motto on his ring, "Libertas in Legibus." At the general election in 1802, he was returned for Petersfield. ln May, 1803, the King's message relative to France had been delivered to the house, and the question of peace or war with that country gave rise to an animated debate. Serjeant Best spoke on that question; declaring that "if the smallest spot on earth were demanded of us in the manner, and under the circumstances, that France had demanded Malta, he would refuse it, because he would consider it as essentially connected with the safety and the interest of the British Empire." On June 18, 1804, he was in a minority of 223 to 264 on Mr. Pitt's Additional Defence Bill; and he also divided, in Feb. 1805, with 106 to 313 on Mr. Grey's amendment to the address to the throne on the Spanish war. In the same year we find him voting in conjunction with 317 members who pronounced on the culpability of Viscount Melville; and a few days afterwards he vindicated the commissioners of naval affairs. Amongst other things he moved " for an account of all pensions granted by the Crown from the 1st of May, 1804, to the 1st of April, 1805; for an account of all augmentations of salaries by sign-manual, letters-patent, or warrant; and for the appointment of a committee on the eleventh report of the naval commissioners." In an able introductory speech he maintained that some of the fundamental laws of the constitution had been grossly violated, as appeared from the facts disclosed in that important report. Among other matters of serious import, he charged that money had been raised by the Government without the consent of Parliament, by means of Exchequer bills. Mr. Serjeant Best also carried through Parliament a bill for improving the livings of the metropolitan clergy, who expressed their gratitude by a donation of a magnificent piece of plate. These facts show that the deceased nobleman's early politics were of a Liberal tendency. In March, 1809, Mr. Serjeant Best was elected Recorder of Guildford, iv the place of Lord Grantley, and in the following year was counsel for the Earl of Leicester against the 'Morning Herald,' for a libel, the odious circumstances of which have been recently revived by proceeding in Parliament, in connection with the title and estates of the Townsend family. The damages were 1,000l. —a result chiefly owing to Mr. Best.—In 1813 he became member for Bridport, and a change seems to have taken place in his politics. In 1809 Serjeant Best was raised to the Bench as one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench, and received the honour of knighthood. He remained in this office until 1824, when he was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which he held till 1829, when retired upon his pension, and was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Wynford. As a judge his lordship's conduct has been the subject of remark. Such was his mode of summing up a case, that he obtained the soubriquet of the "Judge Advocate;" and his conduct was brought under the notice of Parliament.—The circumstances, states the 'Globe,' which led to the retirement of Sir W. D. Best from the chief seat in the Common Pleas are not generally known; and it gives the following statement of them. When Sir Charles Wetherell vacated the attorney generalship. Ministers found themselves in some perplexity, shown by the unusual time which elapsed before the nomination of a successor to the post. After having once before suffered another to be put over his head as first law officer, Sir Nicholas Tindal (then Solicitor-General,) could not, without being a party to his own degradation, again submit to such an indignity. To have promoted him to the attorney-generalship would have involved the necessity of an appeal to his constituents; which, if disastrous, as it was likely it would be, and following upon Mr. (now Sir Robert) Peel's rejection at Oxford, it would have been not only disagreeable, but probably fatal, to the Government. A vacancy was therefore created for him on the bench. Sir N. Tindal would have preferred to have been made Chief Baron of the Exchequer; and it was actually proposed to Chief Baron Alexander that he should retire upon a peerage; but the proposition was rejected. The Chief Baron had no claim to a pension, and had no disposition to resign the solid advantages of his post for the empty honours of a peerage. The next application was to Chief Justice Best, who had already thrown out hints of a desire for a coronet. —The prospect of obtaining the object of his hopes had such an effect upon a constitution already impaired by hereditary gout, as to bring him at once within the meaning and intent of the acts of Parliament regulating the retirement and pensions of the judges. His case was decided as being within the statutory provisions; and his lordship retired with a pension of 3,750l. But, although compelled to withdraw from the bench, no longer able to perform its duties, and under a statute which requires that the judge to whom the pension is granted shall be afflicted with "a permanent body infirmity disabling him from the due execution of his office." Lord Wynford was nominated to the office of deputy speaker of the House Lords, and he used to be carried into the house in an arm chair, from which he was permitted not to rise whilst speaking.— Although the latter part of Lord Wyndford's parliamentary course was more than ordinary political, the growing infirmities of age at length compelled him gradually to withdraw himself from public life.—The deceased peer married, in 1794, the second daughter of Jerome Knapp, Esq, who has been some years dead, and by whom he had ten children, four of whom only, however, survive him, namely, the Hon. William Samuel, who succeeds to the title, born 1798, and married to the youngest daughter of William Hoytt, Esq, of Berkshire; the Hon. Capt. Thos. Best, R.N. married to the second daughter of Lord Kenyon; Hon. and Rev. Samuel Best, rector of Abbott Ann, Hants, and married the youngest daughter of Sir James Burroughs, late one of the judges of the Common Pleas; and the Hon. Grace Ann, married to Philip Luke Godsal, Esq.— Historical Register.

Nottingam Review - Friday 14 March 1845

     On the 3d inst., at his seat, Leesons, Kent, The Right Honourable Lord Wynford, aged 78. ...