Adam Bittleston Explained

Sir Adam Bittleston (12 September 1817 – 18 January 1892) was a British-born Indian judge.

Early life and education

He was the son of Thomas Bittleston, editor of The Morning Post^[1] and an official assignee of the Birmingham District Court of Bankruptcy and his wife Ann. He was named for his paternal grandfather, surveyor Adam Bittleston, of Maryport, Cumberland (now Cumbria).^[2]

Bittleston was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School until 1834 and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1841.^[3]

Career

Bittleston practised on the Midland Circuit and from 1850 was a revising barrister.^[4] In 1858 he was appointed a puisne judge at the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras and therefore created a Knight Bachelor.^[5] After the Indian High Courts Act 1861, Bittleston switched to the new established Madras High Court and served as acting chief justice in 1866 and 1867.^[6] He retired in 1870 and returned to England.

Personal life

In 1844, he married Rebecca Ann, eldest daughter of George Hastings Heppel, of Princes Street and Mansion House Street, London, an actuary and former paper mill owner^[7] who had also made a fortune as a fruiterer supplying to public dinners.^{[8] [9]} Bittleston died in 1892 at Weybridge.^[10] Their children included Adam Henry Bittleston, George Hastings Bittleston, John Pattison Bittleston, and Thomas George Bittleston.^[11] Colonel George Hastings Bittleston, D.S.O., C.B.E., of Ashleigh, Whitchurch, Devon, late of the Royal Artillery, was father of Mary Katharine, who married Major-General Charles Fullbrook-Leggatt, C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Mirror of Parliament for the second session of the eleventh parliament of Great Britain and Ireland in the fourth year of the reign of King William IV, appointed to meet 3 February 1834, vol. III, ed. John Henry Barrow, 1834, p. 2510
2. The County Families of the United Kingdom, fifth edition, Edward Walford, Spottiswoode & Co., p. 91
3. Book: Buckland, C. E. . Swan Sonnenschein & Co. . Dictionary of Indian Biography . London . 1906 . 44 .
4. Book: Walford, Edward . The County Families of the United Kingdom . 1860 . Robert Hardwicke . London . 54 .
5. Book: Dod, Robert P. . The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland . 1860 . Whitaker and Co. . London . 119 .
6. Book: P. O'Sullivan . J. M. C. Mills . amp . Madras High Court Reports: Reports of Cases decided in the High Court of Madras in 1866, 1867 and 1868. J. Higginbotham . Madras . 1868 . III .
7. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, vol. 10, 1863, p. 83
8. The Gentleman Magazine, collected vol. XXIII, "Additions to Obituary", June 1845, p. 666
9. Book: Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles . Armorial Families . Edinburgh/London . Grange Publishing Works . 1895 . 100 .
10. Book: Hart, Grace . Eastern Press Ltd. . Merchant Taylors' School Register, 1561-1934 . I . 1936 .
11. List of Carthusians 1800 to 1879, ed. W. D. Parish, Charterhouse School, Farncombe & Co. (Lewes), 1879, p. 22
12. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, Kelly's Directories, 1963, p. 1695