1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

1791 - passed out of the high school in Edinburgh as dux of the senior school. 1792 - matriculated at the University of Edinburgh, where he read humanity and philosophy. 1796 - entered the faculty of law at Edinburgh University. 1797 - joined the prestigious Speculative Society. 1800 - called to the Scottish bar. 1803 - admitted to Lincoln's Inn. 1802 - helped to launch the Edinburgh Review. 1807 - organized the whig press campaign in the election. 1808 - called to the English bar. 1810 - became a member of the Royal Lancasterian Society. 1810-1812 - served as member for Camelford. 1811 - he defended the Hunt brothers on a charge of seditious libel for reprinting an article from the Stamford News in the Examiner which dealt with the brutality of flogging in the army. Introduced a bill (which passed) to make it a felony to trade in slaves. 1812 - acted as legal adviser to Princess Caroline. 1814 - became a vice-president of the British and Foreign School Society on its formation. 1815 - offered the seat of Winchelsea by the earl of Darlington. 1816 - had a liaison in Geneva with Caroline Lamb. Obtained a parliamentary committee ‘to inquire into the education of the lower orders in the metropolis’. 1820 - sworn in as Queen Caroline's attorney-general. 1824 - became involved with Birkbeck's London Mechanics' Institute. 1826 - was the moving force behind the foundation of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 1830 - made Lord Chancellor. 1832 - set up a royal commission into the reform of the Poor Law. 1834 - managed the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act through the Lords. 1838 - built a château at Cannes. 1839 - reports reached the London press that Brougham had been involved in a coach accident and been killed, and a number of obituaries appeared in the press. It was suspected that he had unsuccessfully attempted to fake his own death. 1844 - founded the Law Amendment Society.