# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Marriott, William Thackeray

​MARRIOTT, Sir WILLIAM THACKERAY (1834–1903), judge-advocate-general, born in 1834, was third son of Christopher Marriott of Crumpsall, near Manchester, by his wife Jane Dorothea, daughter of John Poole of Cornbrook Hall, near Manchester.
He was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1854 and became prominent in the debates of the Union society. He ​graduated B.A. in 1858. In the same year he was ordained deacon, and appointed curate of St. George's, Hulme, a parish mainly inhabited by the working classes. In 1859 he started the 'Hulme Athenæum,' one of the first working-men's clubs established in England. All the members were working men. In 1860 Marriott issued a pamphlet, 'Some Real Wants and Some Legitimate Claims of the Working Classes,' in which he advocated the formation of parks, gymnasiums and clubs for the people. A year later, when the time came for him to take priest's orders, he declined on conscientious grounds, giving his reasons in the preface to his farewell sermon, 'What is Christianity?' (1862). Renouncing his orders, Marriott became a student of Lincoln's Inn on 4 May 1861 and began writing for the press. He was called to the bar on 26 Jan. 1864, and the following year published a pamphlet on the law relating to 'Clerical Disabilities.' Endowed with considerable rhetorical powers, he soon acquired a lucrative practice in railway and compensation cases. He was made a Q.C. on 13 Feb. 1877, and was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn on 26 Nov. 1879. Like many rising lawyers he cherished political ambitions, and was returned as liberal member for Brighton on 5 April 1880. In his election address he described himself as a follower of Lord Hartington [q. v. Suppl. II], then the official head of the liberal party; but when Gladstone became prime minister, he showed signs of dissatisfaction. He vehemently opposed the government's proposal to remedy obstruction by means of the closure, and on 30 March 1882 he moved an amendment to the closure resolution, which was defeated by 39 (Lucy, The Gladstone Parliament, 1886, p. 228). In 1884 he published a pamphlet entitled 'The Liberal Party and Mr. Chamberlain,' a violent attack on what he regarded as the revolutionary radicalism of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, and there ensued an acrimonious personal controversy, which Marriott afterwards regretted. Meanwhile his alienation from the liberal party became complete. Repeated visits to Egypt confirmed his opinion of the disastrous consequences of Gladstone's Egyptian policy, which he denounced in an open letter to Lord Salisbury, entitled 'Two Years of British Intervention in Egypt' (1884). He vacated his seat early in 1884, offered himself for re-election as a conservative, and was elected (3 March 1884). On the accession of the conservatives to office Marriott was made a privy councillor (9 July 1885), and was appointed judge-advocate-general in Lord Salisbury's first administration (15 July). He was again gazetted judge-advocate-general on 9 Aug. 1886 in Lord Salisbury's second administration, and retained the office till 1892. He was knighted in 1888. He supported the conservative cause with ardour. He joined the grand council of the Primrose League, and in May 1892 he succeeded Sir Algernon Borthwick, Lord Glenesk [q. v. Suppl. II], as chancellor of the league, and was mainly instrumental in organising the monster petition against the home rule bill of 1893. In the same year he retired from parliament to resume practice at the parliamentary bar. He had been re-elected as a conservative for Brighton at the general elections of 1885, 1886, and 1892.
In 1887 and 1888 Marriott had acted as counsel for the ex-Khedive Ismail Pasha in settling claims for the arrears of his civil list against the Egyptian government. He persuaded the ex-Khedive to moderate his demands, with the result that he secured for him the handsome compensation of 1,200,000l. He was less successful in prosecuting similar claims of Zobehr Pasha, the Sudanese slave trader. After his retirement from parliament he embarked in unfortunate financial speculation. On 3 May 1899 he obtained a judgment of 5000l. and costs against Mr. Hooley. Later he transferred his attentions to South Africa and migrated thither. Residing at Johannesburg, he carried on legal business there, and acted as political adviser of the Dale Lace party in opposition to Lord Milner's policy. He died at Aix-la-Chapelle on 27 July 1903. On 17 December 1872 he married Charlotte Louisa, eldest daughter of Capt. Tennant, R.N., of Need wood House, Hampshire.
Marriott's literary work showed some critical power. His change of profession and his political conversion exposed him to constant attack, and detraction confirmed a characteristic cynicism. A caricature appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1883.
[The Times and Morning Post, 30 July 1903; The Eagle, Dec. 1903; Men of the Time, 1899; Leslie Stephen, Life of Henry Fawcett, 1885, p. 29; Annual Register, 1888, p. 382.]
G. S. W.