A Case Study of the Impact of Wealth on the Criminal Justice System in Early Nineteenth-Century England

Abstract

Using a case study of the passage of the son of a wealthy, well connected East India Company merchant through the English criminal justice system from 1812 to 1815, this article examines the attitudes and strategies of his family, lawyers and prosecutors in order to assess the impact of wealth and influence at different stages of the judicial process. It demonstrates that complex questions of social, political and family allegiances determined when and how wealthy families chose to apply or abandon attempts to influence the course of justice. Both father and son could call on a number of relatives and elite acquaintances, but while the son expected their support, the father sought to prevent it because he wanted the law to stop his profligate son from defrauding society. In doing so he conflated the public good with private interest and, while he insisted on the impartiality of the law, his use of money to hire or fire legal counsel and his decision not to call on influential connections, was highly instrumental and had a significant impact at different stages.