Robert Porrett Collier, 1st Baron Monkswell
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The Right Honourable The Lord Monkswell QC, PC |
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| Judicial Committee of the Privy Council | |
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| Born | 21 June 1817 |
| Died | 27 October 1886 (aged 69) Grasse, France |
Robert Porrett Collier, 1st Baron Monkswell, PC, QC (21 June 1817 – 27 October 1886) was an English lawyer, politician and judge.
He was the eldest son of John Collier, a merchant of Plymouth, formerly a member of the Society of Friends and M.P. for that town from 1832 to 1842. Robert Collier was born in 1817, and was educated at the grammar school and other schools at Plymouth till the age of sixteen, when he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Kemp, subsequently rector of St. James's, Piccadilly, London.
He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and while there wrote some clever parodies, and published a satirical poem called 'Granta.' Ill-health compelled him to abandon reading for honours and to quit the university, to which he only returned to take the ordinary B.A. degree in 1843. Already a politician, he made some speeches at Launceston in 1841 with a view to contesting the borough in the liberal interest, but did not go to the poll, and he was an active member of the Anti-Cornlaw League and addressed the meetings in Covent Garden Theatre.
He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in Hilary term 1843, and joined the western circuit and Devonshire, Plymouth, and Devonport sessions. His first important success was a brilliant defence of some Brazilian pirates at Exeter in July 1845; the prisoners were, however, condemned to death, and the judge (Baron Platt) refused to reserve a point of law on which Collier insisted. Collier hurried to London and laid the matter before the Home Secretary (Sir James Graham) and Sir Robert Peel. Both ministers appear to have been convinced by Collier's argument, and on 5 August, it was announced in both houses of parliament that Baron Platt had yielded. The subsequent argument before all the judges in London of the point taken at the trial resulted in the grant of a free pardon to Collier's clients.
On his next visit to Exeter he had nineteen briefs. Local influence and wide practical knowledge gave him a good practice, and he was an excellent junior. He was appointed recorder of Penzance, and in 1852 he was returned to parliament for Plymouth, in the Liberal interest, and retained the seat till he became a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Lord Cranworth made him a queen's counsel in 1854. After a keen rivalry with Montague Edward Smith, afterwards a judge, for the foremost place, he obtained the lead of the circuit and kept it for many years.
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