David Jardine (barrister)
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David Jardine (1794–1860) was an English barrister and magistrate, known as a historical and legal writer.
Born at Pickwick, near Bath, Somerset, he was son of David B. Jardine (1766–1797), Unitarian minister at Bath from 1790, by his wife, a daughter of George Webster of Hampstead. The father died on 10 March 1797, and John Prior Estlin of Bristol edited, with a memoir, two volumes of his sermons.[1]
David Jardine graduated M.A.in 1813 from Glasgow University where he studied, amongst other subjects, civil law and adhered to the 1707 Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act.[2]
Abandoning the career of his minister father, Jardine was eventually called to the bar as a member of the Middle Temple (7 February 1823). Choosing the western circuit, he became recorder of Bath.
In 1836, Jardine was appointed to the Statute Law Commission of 1833, a royal commission to consolidate existing statutes of criminal law into an English Criminal Code, replacing philosopher John Austin who had resigned due to disagreements in opinion.[3]
In 1839 he was appointed police magistrate at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, London.[1]
He died at the Heath, Weybridge, Surrey, on 13 September 1860; his wife, Sarah, died three weeks later.[1]
