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拍品專文
Baron Lyndhurst was the elder son of the celebrated portrait painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). He was born on Beacon Hill, Boston Massachusetts in 1772, shortly before the American War of Independence. His father left for England and later Italy in 1774, his wife and family following to England in 1775. They bought and enlarged a house in Hanover Square, Mayfair, which was to be the Copley home until Lord Lyndhurst’s death in 1863. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he excelled. He became a barrister, being called to the bar in 1804 as a bencher at Lincoln’s Inn. His skills in court led him to be called to parliament in 1818 sitting as M.P. for Yarmouth. He was knighted in 1819 was appointed solicitor general. In 1826 he succeeded Lord Gifford as Master of the Rolls, but had to resign his seat the following year on his appointment as Lord Chancellor and his elevation to the peerage as Lord Lyndhurst of Lyndhurst. He served under three prime ministers. Wellington’s government fell in 1830, none the less he was made chief baron of the exchequer. He was once more Lord Chancellor for a brief period in 1834 and again in 1841. It was during the 1834 post that the confusion as to who the defaced seal should be presented occurred, Brougham or Lyndhurst. 1834 was also the year in which Lady Lyndhurst died. A handsome and intelligent woman, Sarah Garay Thomas, daughter of Charles Brunsden, whom Lyndhurst had married in 1819. He was a social figure and lover or Partis, where he was to remarry in 1837. He died at his home in London in 1863, described by later biographers as enigmatic, perhaps partly due to the lack of many personal papers, most of which he had burnt, he had a reputation as a great barrister but a political figure whose convictions changed from year to year.