Life of John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop the Melanesian Islands | Page 3

married Frances Duke Coleridge, sister of his friend
and fellow-barrister, John Taylor Coleridge. This lady, whose name to
all who remember her calls up a fair and sweet memory of all that was
good, bright, and beloved, was the daughter of James Coleridge, of
Heath's Court, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, Colonel of the South Devon
Volunteers. He was the eldest of the numerous family of the Rev. John
Coleridge, Master of Ottery St. Mary School, and the poet, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, was the youngest.
The strong family affection that existed between all Colonel
Coleridge's children, and concentrated itself upon the only sister among
them, made marriage with her an adoption into a group that could not
fail to exercise a strong influence on all connected with it, and the ties
of kindred will be found throughout this memoir to have had peculiar
force.
John Coleridge Patteson, his mother's second child and eldest son, was
born at No. 9, Grower Street, Bedford Square, on the 1st of April, 1827,
and baptized on the 8th. Besides the elder half-sister already mentioned,
another sister, Frances Sophia Coleridge, a year older than, and one
brother, James Henry, nearly two years younger than Coleridge, made
up the family.
Three years later, in 1830, Mr. Patteson was raised to the Bench, at the
unusually early age of forty.

It is probable that there never was a period when the Judicial Bench
could reckon a larger number of men distinguished not only for legal
ability but for the highest culture and for the substantial qualities that
command confidence and respect. The middle of the nineteenth century
was a time when England might well be proud of her Judges.
There was much in the habits of the Bench and Bar to lead to close and
friendly intimacy, especially on the circuits. When legal etiquette
forbade the use of any public conveyance, and junior barristers shared
post-chaises, while the leaders travelled in their own carriages, all spent
a good deal of time together, and it was not unusual for ladies to go a
great part of the circuit with their husbands, especially when it lay in
the direction of their own neighbourhood. The Judges' families often
accompanied them, especially at the summer assize, and thus there
grew up close associations between their children, which made their
intimacy almost like that of relationship. Almost all, too, lived in near
neighbourhood in those parts of London that now are comparatively
deserted, but which were then the especial abodes of lawyers, namely,
those adjacent to Bedford Square, where the gardens were the daily
resort of their children, all playing together and knowing one another
with that familiarity that childhood only gives.
'Sir John Patteson's contemporaries have nearly all, one by one, passed
away,' writes one of them, Sir John Taylor Coleridge. 'He has left few,
if any, literary monuments to record what his intellectual powers were;
and even in our common profession the ordinary course and practice
are so changed, that I doubt whether many lawyers are now familiar
with his masterly judgments; but I feel that I speak the truth when I
describe him as a man of singularly strong common sense, of great
acuteness, truthfulness, and integrity of judgment. These were great
judicial qualities, and to these he added much simplicity and geniality
of temper and manners; and all these were crowned by a firm,
unhesitating, devout belief in the doctrines of our faith, which issued in
strictness to himself and the warmest, gentlest charity to his
fellow-creatures. The result was what you might expect. Altogether it
would be hard to say whether you would characterise him as a man
unusually popular or unusually respected.'

Such was the character of Mr. Justice Patteson, a character built upon
the deep, solid groundwork of religion, such as would now be called
that of a sound Churchman of the old school, thoroughly devout and
scrupulous in observance, ruling his family and household on a
principle felt throughout, making a conscience of all his and their ways,
though promoting to the utmost all innocent enjoyment of pleasure,
mirth, or gaiety. Indeed, all who can look back on him or on his home
remember an unusual amount of kindly genial cheerfulness, fun,
merriment, and freedom, i.e. that obedient freedom which is the most
perfect kind of liberty.
Though this was in great part the effect of having such a head of the
family, the details of management could not but chiefly depend upon
the mother, and Lady Patteson was equally loved for her tenderness and
respected for her firmness. 'She was, indeed,' writes her brother, 'a
sweet and pious person, of the most affectionate, loving disposition,
without a grain of selfishness, and of the stoutest adherence to principle
and duty. Her tendency was to deal with her