Author: Dwarris, Fortunatus William Lilley
Biography:
DWARRIS, Fortunatus William Lilley (1786-1860: ODNB)
He was the eldest son of William Dwarris (1753-1813), an attorney, and his wife Sarah Smith (1760-1846) and was born on 23 Oct. 1786 in Kingston, Jamaica, where his father had inherited Golden Grove plantation from an uncle, Fortunatus Dwarris. He was educated at Rugby school from 1801 and on 23 May 1804 he matriculated at University College, Oxford, and graduated BA in 1808. On 18 May 1803 he was admitted to the Middle Temple as a law student and was called to the bar on 28 June 1811. On 28 Feb. 1811 he married Alicia Brereton, daughter of an army captain, in St. George’s church, Bloomsbury; they had four sons and two daughters. The family lived in London: the 1841 Census shows them resident at 5 James’s Street in Westminster. Although Dwarris inherited Golden Grove from his father in 1813 and derived income from the estate, in 1822 he was made a commissioner investigating the state of law in the West Indies. He travelled in the West Indies in 1822-23 and the committee’s reports were published in 1825-26. The reports recommended legal reforms but Dwarris’s The West India Question Plainly Stated (1828) urged only very gradual emancipation with full compensation to plantation owners. On 1 Feb. 1836 he received over £3277 for 175 enslaved people on the Golden Grove estate and Dwarris was knighted for his committee work on 2 May 1838. Dwarris developed a successful legal career, rising to become a master in the Queen’s Bench. He was treasurer of the Middle Temple when in 1859 he laid the foundation stone for a new library. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, a fellow of the Royal Society, and vice-president of the Archaeological Society. He died at Eccleston Square, London, on 20 May 1860 and was buried with his wife (d 1856) at Brookwood cemetery in Woking, Surrey. He died intestate having revoked his 1822 will in 1853; his property was therefore shared equally among his four surviving children. His publications include A General Treatise on the Statutes (1830-31, 1848), Some New Facts and a New Theory as to Junius (1850), and The Widow’s Rescue (1855). (ODNB 13 Aug. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 13 Aug. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 13 Aug. 2024; Alumni Oxonienses; LBS; National Archives UK PROB 11-1754-94; The Sun 13 Aug. 1860) SR
Other Names:
- F. W. L. Dwarris