Biography

Sleigh, eldest son of William Willcocks Sleigh, M.D., of Bull House, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, and subsequently of Dublin, was born in Dublin in 1818. He matriculated from St. Mary Hall, Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, on 9 Feb. 1843, but took no degree.

He was entered as a student of the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

 on 18 January 1843, and on 30 January 1846 he was called to the bar. He went the home circuit, attended the central criminal court, and the London, Middlesex, and Kent sessions. On 2 Nov. 1868 he was created a serjeant-at-law, being the last person not a judge received into Serjeants' Inn. Like his fellow-serjeants Parry, Ballantine, and Huddleston (afterwards Baron Huddleston), he enjoyed a lucrative practice at the Old Bailey, and took part in many leading criminal trials, being a most effective cross-examiner. In 1871 he accepted the first brief for the claimant Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton

Arthur Orton , was the celebrated Tichborne claimant of the Victorian era.-Biography:Orton was born at Wapping, London, the son of George Orton, a butcher and purveyor of ships' stores....

, alias Roger Tichborne, in his civil action. He was long retained as leading counsel to the Bank of England, Hardinge Giffard (afterwards Lord Halsbury) being his junior. As a conservative he unsuccessfully contested Lambeth 5 May 1862, Huddersfield 20 March 1868, Frome 17 November 1868, and Newark 1 April 1870. In 1877 he emigrated to Australia, and on 21 March of that year was called to the bar of Victoria; but his claim to precedence as a serjeant-at-law was not allowed. He continued to practise in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

until 1886, when he returned to England. He died at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, on 23 January 1887.

Publications

Among his publications were:

• ‘Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister,’ 1850.
• ‘The Grand Jury System subversive of the Moral Interests of Society,’ 1852.
• ‘A Handy Book on Criminal Law, applicable chiefly to Commercial Transactions,’ 1858.
• ‘Personal Wrongs and Legal Remedies,’ 1860.