Romilly was born in Frith Street, Soho, London, on March 1, 1757. He was the second son of Peter Romilly, a watchmaker and jeweller. His grandfather had emigrated from Montpellier after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and had married Margaret Garnault, a Huguenot refugee like himself, but of a far wealthier family.
He served for a time in his father's shop; but his education was not neglected, and he became a good classical scholar and particularly conversant with French literature.
He visited Paris in 1789, and studied the course of the Revolution there; and in 1790 he published his Thoughts on the Probable Influence of the Late Revolution in France upon Great Britain, a work of great power.
In 1778 he determined to go to the bar, and entered himself at Gray's Inn.
Called to the bar in 1783, he went the midland circuit, but was chiefly occupied with chancery practice.
His practice at the chancery bar continued largely to increase, and in 1800 he was made a K. C.
He accepted the office, and was knighted and brought into parliament for Queenborough.
By statute law innumerable offences were punished by death, but, as such wholesale executions would be impossible, the larger number of those convicted and sentenced to death at every assizes were respited, after having heard the sentence of death solemnly passed upon them.
This led to many acts of injustice, as the lives of the convicts depended on the caprice of the judges, while at the same time it made the whole system of punishments and of the criminal law ridiculous.
Romilly saw this, and in 1808 he managed to repeal the Elizabethan statute, which made it a capital offence to steal from the person.
This success, however, raised opposition, and in the following year three bills repealing equally sanguinary statutes were thrown out by the House of Lords under the influence of Lord Ellenborough.
Year after year the same influence prevailed, and Romilly saw his bills rejected; but his patient efforts and his eloquence ensured victory eventually for his cause by opening the eyes of Englishmen to the barbarity of their criminal law.
He did not long survive his triumph.
Romilly's great abilities were thoroughly recognized by the Whig party, to which he attached himself; and in 1806, on the accession of the "Ministry of All the Talents" to office, he was offered the post of Solicitor General, although he had never sat in the House of Commons. He accepted the office, and was knighted and brought into parliament for Queenborough. He went out of office with the government, but remained in the House of Commons, sitting successively for Horsham, Wareham and Arundel.
Romilly married Anne Garbett, daughter of Francis Garbett, of Knill Court, Herefordshire, in 1798. They had two sons, Sir John Romilly, a distinguished lawyer and politician who was ennobled as Baron Romilly in 1866, and Frederick Romilly, a politician.
