William Noel (1695–1762)

William Noel (1695–1762) was an English barrister, judge and politician.

William Noel

Life

The younger son of Sir John Noel, 4th Baronet, of Kirkby Mallery, Leicestershire, by his wife Mary, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Clobery of Bradstone, Devons, he was born on 19 March 1695. He was educated at Lichfield grammar school, under the Rev. John Hunter, and having been admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 12 February 1716, was called to the bar on 25 June 1721.^[1]

At a by-election in October 1722 Noel was returned to the House of Commons for Stamford, which he continued to represent until June 1747. With Nicholas Fazakerley and Thomas Bootle he defended Richard Francklin, a bookseller who was tried before Chief-justice Lord Raymond in December 1731 for publishing a libel in The Craftsman.^[2] He held the post of deputy-recorder of Stamford for some years, and in 1738 became a king's counsel and a bencher of the Inner Temple (28 April). On 11 December 1746 he was appointed a member of the committee for preparing the articles of impeachment against the Jacobite Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, and during the trial in March 1747 replied to objections which Lovat had raised in his defence.^[1]

At the British general election, 1747 Noel was returned for West Looe, Cornwall, and on 25 October 1749 was appointed chief justice of Chester. He was again returned for West Looe at the general election in April 1754. Through Lord Hardwicke's influence Noel succeeded Thomas Birch as a justice of the common pleas in March 1757, when he retired from parliament, but retained his post in Chester.^[1]

On the accession of his nephew Sir Edward Noel, 6th Baronet to the barony of Wentworth in 1745, Noel assumed the courtesy title "The Honourable". He was described by Horace Walpole as "a pompous man of little solidity", and was held up to ridicule in The Causidicade, an anonymous satire. Noel died on 8 December 1762.^[1]

Family

Noel married Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir Thomas Trollope, bart., of Casewick, Lincolnshire, by whom he had four daughters:^[1]

1. Susannah Maria, who became the second wife of Thomas Hill of Tern Hall, Shropshire, and died on 14 February 1760, aged 41. Their son Noel Hill was created Baron Berwick on 19 May 1784.
2. Anne, who died unmarried.
3. Frances, who married Bennet Sherard, 3rd Earl of Harborough, on 3 July 1757, and died on 13 September 1760.
4. Elizabeth.

Notes

1.  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Noel, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
2.  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1889). "Fazakerley, Nicholas". Dictionary of National Biography. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Noel, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.