Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden (7 October 1762 to 4 November 1832) was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1818 to 1832, having earlier sat as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1816 and briefly served as interim Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1827, the year he was created Baron Tenterden. Born in Canterbury to a barber and his wife, he rose from humble origins through Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he won academic prizes, was called to the bar in 1796, and became one of the highest earning barristers of his generation, publishing a legal tract on merchants and shipping in 1802. Under his leadership the Court of King's Bench was said to have flourished, and he was a strong opponent of the Reform Act 1832, declaring after its passage that he would never again enter the House of Lords. He died in 1832 during the course of a trial, having suffered from an undiagnosed illness, his final recorded words concerning the deliberations of a jury.
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Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden, was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1818 and 1832. Born in obscure circumstances to a barber and his wife in Canterbury, Abbott was educated initially at a dame school before moving to The King's School, Canterbury in 1769. He was noted as an excellent student, receiving an exhibition scholarship from the school in March 1781, when he matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Here he was elected a fellow, and also served as a tutor to the son of Sir Francis Buller, which first made him consider becoming a barrister. He joined the Middle Temple in 1787, transferring to the Inner Temple in 1793, and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1796. Abbott was noted as an excellent barrister, earning more than any other during his time at the Bar, despite being considered unimaginative and a poor speaker. He was offered a position as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1808, which he turned down; he accepted the same offer in 1816, receiving the customary knighthood and being appointed a Serjeant-at-Law.
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