William Selwyn (barrister)

William Selwyn (1775–1855) was an English lawyer, known as a legal author.

He was the second son of William Selwyn, K.C., treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1793, by Frances Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. John Dod of Woodford, Essex. George Augustus Selwyn, the wit, was his father's first cousin. He was educated at Eton College, and St. John's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1797, as first chancellor's medallist in classics, senior optime in the Mathematical Tripos; and proceeded M.A. in 1800.

From Lincoln's Inn, where Selwyn was admitted a student in 1797, he was called to the bar on 24 November 1807, and was elected treasurer of his Inn in 1840. He went onto the western circuit, was recorder of Portsmouth from 1819 to 1829, and took silk in the Trinity vacation of 1827.

Soon after the marriage of Queen Victoria, Selwyn was chosen to assist Albert, Prince Consort in his legal studies. A valetudinarian in later life, he lived in retirement at Pagoda House, Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, an estate inherited from his father in 1817. He died on 25 July 1855, while on a visit to Tunbridge Wells, and was buried in the neighbouring churchyard of Rusthall. A road later built near Pagoda House was named Selwyn Avenue after him.

Selwyn provided land for construction of St John the Divine, Richmond. The building was completed in 1836.

Selwyn collaborated with George Maule in Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of King's Bench, London, 1814, 2 vols. He was author of Abridgment of the Law of Nisi Prius, 3 parts, London, 1806–8. A successful work, its 13th edition, by David Keane, Q.C., and Charles T. Smith, judge of the Cape of Good Hope, appeared in 1869.

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