Samuel Warren (British lawyer)

He was born in Wales at Rackery Farm near Wrexham, Denbighshire, the son of Anne (née Williams) and Rev Dr Samuel Warren, a Nonconformist minister. After studying at the Kingswood School, Bath he attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine but then took up law. He became a barrister, wrote several legal text-books, and in 1852 was made Recorder of Hull.

Warren sat in the House of Commons for Midhurst 1856–1859, and was a Master in Lunacy 1859–77. He was the author of Passages from the Diary of a late Physician, which appeared (1832–37) first in Blackwood's Magazine, as did also the novel Ten Thousand a-Year (1839). Both attracted considerable attention, and were often reprinted and translated. The novel was based on the Alexander Humphrys-Alexander Stirling forgery case, where a claim was made to a vacant earldom using fake documents. The shallow, profligate young protagonist, Tittlebat Titmouse, is said to be based on Edward Oxford, who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria.

His last novel, Now and Then (1847), was a social novel of criminality and the law, arguing from a Methodist perspective the moral case for reform. It is realistically observed, based in outline on an actual case in Wolverhampton, but had little success. Some critics thought Warren entertained exaggerated ideas as to the importance of his place in literature. However, his best known work, Ten Thousand a Year, contains social satire rivalling that of Thackeray, written from a Tory standpoint.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1835.[1] He died in London.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Samuel Warren
• Samuel Warren: A Victorian Law and Literature Practitioner, by C.R.B. Dunlop
• Works by Samuel Warren at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Samuel Warren at Internet Archive