Biography

James Scarlett (1769-1844), 1st Baron Abinger, judge, was born on 13 December 1769 in Duckett's Spring, St James's parish, Jamaica, the second son of Robert Scarlett of Duckett's Spring and his wife, Elizabeth Wright, a widow, and daughter of Colonel Philip Anglin of Paradise estate, Jamaica. After a short period at a public school, he was admitted as a fellow commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took up residence in November 1785. Scarlett was called to the bar on 28 July 1791, and graduated MA in 1794. After some doubts, for he was entirely without professional connections, he joined the northern circuit and the Lancashire sessions. He won a seat at Peterborough at a by-election early in February 1819, and he spoke for the first time in the House of Commons during the debate on the Windsor establishment on 22 February. Scarlett resigned his seat at Peterborough in order to contest Cambridge University at a by-election in November 1822. Although there were two tory candidates in the field, he was easily beaten, and in February 1823 he was re-elected for his old constituency, which he continued to represent until July 1830. When the liberal tory Canning became prime minister in 1827, Scarlett, with the consent of the whig leaders, accepted the post of attorney-general, and was knighted (30 April). Having presided in the exchequer court for more than nine years, Abinger attended the Norfolk circuit in the spring of 1844, apparently in good health. But after a day's work in court at Bury St Edmunds on 2 April, he suffered a stroke and died at his lodgings in the town on 7 April.

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