Background
Born in London, he was the son of Edward Archer Wilde, a solicitor, and Marianne (née Norris).
Born in London, he was the son of Edward Archer Wilde, a solicitor, and Marianne (née Norris).
He was educated at Winchester, was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1839, and graduated Master of Arts
From Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1842. He became a successful lawyer himself and was appointed a Queen"s Counsel in 1855. He was knighted in 1860, shortly after bis appointment as a Baron of the Exchequer.
He presided over the Court of Probate and Divorce from 1863 until his retirement in 1872, being raised to the peerage as Baron Penzance, of Penzance in the County of Cornwall, in 1869.
He was the judge in the sensational Mordaunt divorce case. In 1866, he presided over Hyde v.
Hyde, a polygamy case. In his ruling, Lord Penzance stated:
What, then, is the nature of this institution as understood in Christendom?..If it be of common acceptance and existence, it must have some pervading identity and universal basis.
I conceive that marriage, as understood in Christendom, may for this purpose be defined as the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others
This remained the common-law definition of marriage throughout the British Empire and successor states. In Canada, it was overruled by an explicit statutory definition in the Civil Marriage Acting 2005, which allowed for same-sex marriage. Wilde argued, following Lord Campbell and others, that the works of are extremely accurate in matters of law.
In The Bacon-Controversy (1890) he wrote of ""s perfect familiarity with.
English law.. so perfect and intimate that he was never incorrect and never at fault", arguing that this was evidence that the plays were the work of a legal expert such as Bacon. Several other authors followed Wilde"s arguments about the legal expertise used in, including Sir George Greenwood.
There were no children from the marriage. The couple resided at Eashing Park, Godalming.
At his garden in Godalming, from rosa eglanteria and rosa foetida he produced two new roses named Lady and Lord Penzance.
He went on to produce a further 14 roses named after characters in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, including the Jeanie Deans Hybrid Rose.