Education
Born into a family of noted stenographers, he was educated at Street Paul"s School and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple on 3 May 1793. He was educated at Street Paul"s School and then by Reverend Smith in Suffolk, and accompanying his father to court developed a love of the law.
Career
After distinguishing himself in a libel trial, Gurney became junior counsel in a variety of state trials during the 1790s. After several more noted cases during the early 19th century, he was knighted and made a Baron of the Exchequer on 13 February 1832, a position he gave up in 1845 due to ill-health, dying the same year. As a result, he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple on 3 May 1793.
He was such a success that he was hired as junior counsel during the trials of Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke for treason.
As a result of this case and his prosecution of the Cato Street conspirators in 1820 he was made a King"s Counsel, and on 13 February 1832 was knighted and made a Baron of the Exchequer. In November 1835 he became the last judge in England to sentence two men to be hanged for sodomy under section 11 of the Offences against the Person Acting 1828 which had replaced the Buggery Acting 1533.
Gurney was noted as an independent, albeit harsh judge, and held the position for over a decade until he was forced to resign in January 1845 due to ill health, dying two months later on 1 March 1845. He is buried in a large sarcophagus-form grave in Old Street Pancras Churchyard in London, to the east side of the church, south of the distinctive monument to Sir John Soane.
Views
Two months after qualifying as a barrister he was hired as junior counsel to defend Daniel Isaac Eaton for libel, and after his senior failed to turn up, ran the case himself. Gurney later defended Robert Thomas Crossfield for complicity in the popgun plot, and then prosecuted Lord Cochrane for spreading rumours of Napoleon"s death to make money on the stock exchange.