Starting a biography of Benjamin Franklin (The First American, by H.W. Brands),
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?isbn=0385495404
I noticed on the second page this passage:
``Alexander Wedderburn was going to tell them. The solicitor general
possessed great rhetorical gifts and greater ambition. The former had
made him the most feared advocate in the realm; the latter lifted him
to his present post when he abandoned his allies in the opposition
and embraced the ministry of Lord North. Wedderburn was known to
consider the Boston tea riot treason, and if the law courts upheld
his interpretation, those behind the riot would be liable to the most
severe sanctions, potentially including death. Wedderburn was expected
to argue that the man in the Cockpit today was the prime mover behind
the outburst in Boston. The crowd quivered with anticipation.''
The man in the cockpit was Benjamin Franklin, famous scientist
(electricity), inventor (franklin stove), oceanographer (Gulf Stream),
member of the Royal Society and recipient of its highest prize,
postmater of America, etc., living in London for many years,
and considering himself a loyal British citizen.
Until that day in January 1774.
So who was this Alexander Wedderburn who made a revolutionary out
of the most famous man in the world? None other than the man who
in 1801 would become the first Earl of Rosslyn.
Alexander Wedderburn was a very prominent individual, also becoming
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. There are quite a few sources
about him. For example, the Wedderburn family web pages list him:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/euroleader/wedderburn/blackness/zapg08.htm#94
They say his mother was Janet Ogilvy.
His papers are held by the University of Michigan. Their overview says:
``Alexander Wedderburn came from a distinguished Scottish legal family;
educated at Edinburgh, he practiced law there until he entered Parliament
in 1761, sitting for Ayr Burghs. Initially Wedderburn supported the Bute
and Grenville ministries and opposed both Rockingham and Chatham on their
American policies, but he found it to his advantage to briefly change
his political allegiance on the issue of Wilkes in 1769. An ambitious
lawyer, Wedderburn viewed his parliamentary interests as subservient
to his advancement in the legal profession. After defending Wilkes,
Wedderburn returned to the North fold, serving as solicitor general
and attorney general. Wedderburn supported North's conciliatory plans,
but came to disapprove of his prosecution of the American war. After
considerable badgering, Wedderburn wring from North a peerage and an
appointment as chief justice of common pleas. he became lord chancellor
under Pitt in 1801.''
http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/Arlenes/UZ/Weddrbrn.html
The peerage mentioned was probably being created Baron Loughborough
in 1780.
There's a book about the Wedderburn family:
http://www.albigenses.com/Featured_Book/wedderburn_book.htm
Jeremy Bentham even mentions him, in Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation, Chapter 1, Footnote #04, Utility contra utility?
http://www.la.utexas.edu/labyrinth/ipml/ipml.c01.n04.html
Bentham notes that a government organized for the greatest good of
the greatest number would not be one in which Wedderburn would have
risen so high nor profited so much.
Brands (page 484) quotes Edmund Burke:
``Edmund Burke shook his head at the fatuity of the entire affair.
And as it became clear that the mind-set of Wedderburn characterized
that of the government, Burke observed, `A great empire and little minds
go ill together.' ''
John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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