OrnaVerum
v 7.00.00
23 Jan 2024
updated 23 Jan 2024

Samuel Danks Waddy QC MP
(27 Jun 1830 – 30 Dec 1902)

As you might well suspect, my heart initially warmed to this particular practitioner of the advocates' art – not only counsel on behalf of Findlay, but also a man of principle (I was going to say conviction, but that would have touched a raw nerve in these circumstances!)

But it now transpires that he then switched to the prosecution side, for what reason other than 30 pieces of silver I don't yet know.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Danks_Waddy

Son of a notable Methodist divine, Samuel Dousland Waddy, he was successively (Liberal) MP for Barnstaple, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Brigg, and might have been thought of by the uncharitable as a bit of a carpetbagger. He had just lost the seat for Sheffield at the time of Findlay's trial.

www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/w/a/d/waddy_sd.htm

Born: 1830, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear; christened October 13, 1830, St. Bartholomew's Church, Wednesbury, Staffordshire.

Died: Circa November 1902, Islington, London.

Samuel's father was Samuel Dousland Waddy, Governor of Wesley College (now King Edward VII School), Sheffield (1844-62) and president of the Wesleyan Conference (1859). Samuel had originally planned to follow his father's footsteps in the ministry, but went into the legal profession instead. Educated at London University, he became Queen's Counsel and Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon (1874); Sheffield (1879); Edinburgh (1882); and Brigg, Lincolnshire (1886); and was appointed judge of the Sheffield County Court. In addition, he was a well known lay preacher, and served as treasurer for the Metropolitan Chapel Building Fund.