Career John Eardley Wilmot

engraving of wilmot bartolozzi after sir joshua reynolds

as young barrister, john eardley wilmot taken charles talbot, 1st baron talbot, lord chancellor 1733 1737, philip yorke, 1st earl of hardwicke, next lord chancellor, 1737 1756, , sir dudley ryder, attorney general , lord chief justice. bishop john hough of worcester wrote wilmot s aunt on 4 may 1737:

he joined midland circuit , advocate @ derby assizes. dudley ryder appointed wilmot junior counsel treasury, , in 1753 offered promotion king s counsel , serjeant-at-law, declined , returned derbyshire. however, in february 1755 accepted appointment judge of king s bench , serjeant-at-law, , knighted. in 1756, became commissioner of great seal , proposed lord chancellor, said didn t want it.

william blackstone, author of famous commentaries on laws of england (four volumes, 1765–1769) 1 of wilmot s close friends. blackstone wrote him on 22 february 1766, after publication of first volume of commentaries: sir, lord mansfield did me honour inform me, both , himself had been obliging mark out few of many errors, sensible met in book lately published. nothing can flatter me have thought worth pains of such revisal.

in august 1766, wilmot became chief justice of common pleas, , in september 1766 joined privy council. in 1770, again refused appointment lord chancellor, , in january 1771 resigned chief justice.

in aftermath of american revolutionary war, wilmot appointed royal commissioner investigate claims american loyalists compensation losses had suffered result of war.

he died in london in 1792 , buried @ berkswell, warwickshire, country estate had been inherited wife.