GOULBURN, Edward (1787-1868), of 3 Serjeant’s Inn, London; 21 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, Westminster

Wild in his youth, Goulburn, the younger brother of the leading Conservative Henry Goulburn (1784-1856), made good use of his legal expertise during his short parliamentary career. His father Munbee Goulburn, a West Indian plantation owner, died intestate in 1793, and his widow’s resultant financial struggles meant that Edward was pulled out of school and educated by his elder brother, who also had the responsibility of untangling their father’s finances.1B. Jenkins, Henry Goulburn, 1784-1856: a political biography (1996), 3-9. At sixteen Edward enlisted in the navy, where he developed a gambling habit, and was prosecuted for libel and briefly imprisoned for his satirical poem about naval life, the Blueviad (1805).2G. Goodwin, rev. J. Potier, ‘Goulburn, Edward (1787-1868)’, www.oxforddnb.com; Jenkins, Henry Goulburn, 16. Having supported him with an allowance and dutifully paid off his debts, in 1809 Henry despaired of his brother’s ‘incurable’ gambling.3Henry Goulburn to Edward Goulburn, 3 July 1809, qu. by ibid., 25. However, Edward was able to reform himself sufficiently to begin a legal career soon after. Benefiting from his brother’s influence, he served first as a judge on the Welsh circuit and was appointed a serjeant-at-law in 1829.4Goodwin, ‘Goulburn’; Jenkins, Henry Goulburn, 57-58, 177.

At the 1832 general election Goulburn finished third behind two Reformers at Ipswich, where his chances and those of a colleague were hampered by an unofficial Tory candidate.5McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (1972, 8th edn.), 147; Morn. Chro., 24 Sept. 1832; The Times, 14 Dec. 1832. Appointed recorder for Leicester’s Tory corporation, Goulburn resigned his position to contest the 1835 general election for the town, and was returned at the top of the poll.6McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 168; Morn. Chro., 1, 6 Jan. 1835.

Making his maiden speech on the king’s speech, 26 Feb. 1835, Goulburn unfavourably compared the late Whig ministry to Peel’s new administration, claiming that the latter had the ‘confidence of nine-tenths of the people of this country’.7 Hansard, 26 Feb. 1835, vol. 26, cc. 355-60 (at 358). The following year, he advocated a voluntary commutation of tithes as a compromise solution to the problem.8 Hansard, 22 Feb. 1836, vol. 31, cc. 694-, 708-10. He served on the 1836 inquiry that considered complaints about public bills, especially their ‘unnecessary prolixity’ and ‘want of uniformity’, which recommended greater pre-draft scrutiny, the referring of bills to expert panels, and the stipulation of a general formula and structure to which all bills should conform.9PP 1836 (606), xxi. 197-200 (at 197). His credentials as a law reformer were also displayed by two bills he introduced. The main proposal of the ecclesiastical courts bill, which originated in the Lords and ran out of time in the Commons, was to replace the local ecclesiastical courts with a central London body which would be responsible for proving all wills.10 CJ, xci. 422, 485, 544, 586, 612, 630, 636, 662; Hansard, 12 Feb. 1836, vol. 31, cc. 324-30; PP 1836 (302), iii. 376-403. The second bill sought to abolish those offices in the common law courts whose functions had become partly or wholly redundant, thereby creating a ‘more effective and uniform’ system of legal administration.11PP 1836 (320), ii. 229-38 (at 229); 1836 (399), ii. 239-58; 1836 (473), ii. 259-78; 1836 (506), ii. 279-98; CJ, xci. 446, 468, 544, 612, 717, 749, 762; Hansard, 8 Aug. 1836, vol. 35,c. 992. This bill did not pass beyond the Lords, but Goulburn reintroduced the measure in 1837, and it passed into law after the government adopted the bill at the committee stage (7 Will. & 1 Vict., c.30).12CJ, xcii. 19, 41, 75, 169, 474, 515, 607, 622; PP 1837 (7), i. 527-46; 1837 (115), i. 547-68; Hansard, 3 Feb. 1837, vol. 36, c.91; ibid., 7 June 1837, 27 June 1837, vol. 38, cc. 1244-45, 1670-73.

He forcefully argued that more time should be given to the parliamentary inquiry into the poor laws so that its operation in the manufacturing districts could be investigated, causing John Walter to drop his motion for an immediate report.13Hansard, 16 June 1837, vol. 38, cc. 1534-36. Like other MPs, he expressed disquiet about Howick’s motion, 30 May 1837, that the House have the ‘sole power and authority’ to print votes, debates and reports, arguing that such material could not be published unchecked as it frequently contained libellous allegations.14Hansard, 30 May 1837, vol. 38, cc. 1128-29. His last major contribution was to move, unsuccessfully, on 3 July 1837, that the final register of electors bill be deferred as it had only been introduced by the Whigs for cynical ‘electoral purposes’.15Hansard, 3 July 1837, vol. 38, cc. 1769, 1770.

At the 1837 general election, he was soundly beaten into third place at Leicester by two Reformers, and after unsuccessfully contesting Carlisle in 1841, when he lost out on second place by fifty votes, Goulburn gave up on politics.16McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, 47, 168; The Times, 21, 28 June 1841. The following year the influence of his brother, now chancellor of the exchequer in Peel’s government, led to his appointment as a commissioner of the court of bankruptcy.17Jenkins, Henry Goulburn, 258. He held this position until his death in 1868, when the Times described him as ‘one of the oldest and most respected [members] of the legal profession’.18The Times, 25 Aug. 1868. Three times a widower, he was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Edward Meyrick Goulburn (1818-97), who was headmaster of Rugby 1850-57, dean of Norwich 1866-89, and a prolific religious author.19B. Compton, Edward Meyrick Goulburn (1899); S. Noel Henderson, ‘Brief biography’, in The Goulburn Norwich diaries: selected passages from the ten remaining Norwich diaries of Edward Meyrick Goulburn, ed. S. Noel Henderson (1996), 3-38; A. Pollard, rev. M. Curthoys, ‘Goulburn, Edward Meyrick (1818–1897)’, www.oxforddnb.com.