Background
Coleridge was the eldest son of John Taylor Coleridge, and the great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
chief justice General judge attorney lawyer politician solicitor
Coleridge was the eldest son of John Taylor Coleridge, and the great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1846.
He held the posts, in turn, of Solicitor General for England and Wales, Attorney General for England and Wales, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lord Chief Justice of England. Coleridge established a successful legal practice on the western circuit. From 1853 to 1854 he held the post of secretary to the Royal Commission on the City of London.
In 1865 he was elected to the House of Commons for Exeter for the Liberal Party.
He made a favourable impression on the leaders of his party and when the Liberals came to office in 1868 under William Ewart Gladstone, Coleridge was appointed Solicitor-General. In 1871 he was promoted to Attorney-General, a post he held until 1873.
In 1871 he was also involved in the high-publicity Tichborne Case. In November 1873 Coleridge succeeded Sir William Bovill as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and in January the following year was raised to the peerage as Baron Coleridge, of Ottery Street Mary in the County of Devon.
In 1880 he was made Lord Chief Justice of England on the death of Sir Alexander Cockburn.
Despite his health failing towards the end of his life he remained in this office until his death. He remained a widower until 1885 when married Amy Augusta Jackson Lawford, who survived him. R v Coney (1882)
R v Dudley and Stephens (1884)
Gordon-Cumming v Wilson and Others (1891), the trial arising from the Royal Baccarat Scandal.
Royal Society; 19th United Kingdom Parliament. 20th United Kingdom Parliament]
Coleridge was a member of the Canterbury Association from 24 June 1851.