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Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499 (also known as Sommersett v Steuart, Somersett's case, and the Mansfield Judgment) is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on English soil not to be forcibly removed from the country and sent to Jamaica for sale.
Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499, illegality of slavery at common law; Campbell v Hall (1774) 1 Cowp 204, tax and the Crown's authority in a colony; Holman v Johnson (1775) 1 Cowp 341, the illegality policy in contract law; Pierson v Dunlop (1777) Cowp. 571; Bach v Longman (1777) 2 Cowper 623, copyright
Murray was born on 2 March 1705, at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland, the fourth son of the 5th Viscount of Stormont and his wife Margaret [5] as one of eleven children. [6] [7] Both his parents were strong supporters of the Jacobite cause, [8] [9] and his older brother James followed "The Old Pretender" into exile, this left the family's finance relatively impoverished. [10]
1772, Somerset v Stewart, a freedom suit ruled on by Lord Mansfield in England, who found that slavery had no basis in common law, and no "positive law" had been passed to establish it. His ruling was narrow, saying only that the master could not remove Somerset against his will from England, in order to send him to Jamaica for sale.
Mansfield's deliberate procrastination stretched Somerset's Case over six hearings from January to May, and he finally delivered his judgment on 22 June 1772. It was a clear victory for Somerset, Sharp and the lawyers who acted for Somerset.
On 22 June 1772, the judge, Lord Mansfield, found in favour of Somerset. [3] Mansfield had meant for the ruling to be narrowly construed around the legality of forcible deportation, only conceding by a 1679 statute that slaves are servants, and not chattels. [2]
Mansfield was one of James Somersett's lawyers; Somersett was a slave brought by his master from Jamaica to London in 1769, and freed on 22 June 1772 by a ruling from Lord Mansfield (no relation). Mansfield was made king's counsel on 24 July 1772, and a bencher of the Middle Temple shortly after, on 6 November 1772.
Lord Mansfield was the pre-eminent judge of his age, and decided a host of seminal cases, many of which laid the foundations for commercial law and remain good law to this day. Pages in category "Lord Mansfield cases"