xxiv. 182; Memoirs of Sir Samuel Romilly, 1840, iii. 107-13, 118, 120-4). He opposed to the last the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and the emancipation of the Roman catholics, and continued to support the restrictions on the importation of corn. He spoke for the last time in the House of Lords on 21 May 1829 (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. xxi. 1507). He died at Batsford Park, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire, on 16 Jan. 1830, aged 81, and was buried in Batsford Church, which he had rebuilt in 1822.
Redesdale was 'a sallow man, with round face and blunt features, of a middle height, thickly and heavily built, and had a heavy, drawling, tedious manner of speech' (Sir E. Brydges, Autobiography, i. 159). Sheil says that he introduced a reformation in Irish practice by substituting ' great learning, unwearied diligence, and a spirit of scientific discussion for the flippant apothegms and irritable self-sufficiency of Lord Clare' [see Fitzgibbon, John] (Sketches of the Irish Bar, 1854, i. 228), and Story has pronounced him to be 'one of the ablest judges that ever sat in equity' (Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence, 1884, i. 14). His integrity was unimpeachable, his manners were stiff, and his sense of humour was deficient. An amusing anecdote of his encounter with the wits of the Irish bar will be found in Sir Jonah Barrington's 'Personal Sketches of his own Times,' 1869, i. 185-7. Redesdale married, on 6 June 1803, Lady Frances Perceval, seventh daughter of John, second earl of Egmont, by whom he had an only son, John Thomas Freeman-Mitford, earl of Redesdale [q. v.], and three daughters, viz. Frances Elizabeth, who died at Batsford Park on 7 Nov. 1866, aged 62, and Catherine and Elizabeth, both of whom died young. His wife died in Harley Street, London, on 22 Aug. 1817, aged 49. Redesdale was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple on 13 Nov. 1789, and acted as treasurer of the society in 1796. He was elected F.S.A. on 9 Jan. 1794, and F.R.S. on 6 March 1794. He succeeded Eldon as chancellor of D urham, and was a member of the first, second, and third commissions on public records, and also of the commission of inquiry into the practice of the court of chancery. On the death of Thomas Edwards Freeman (whose ancestor, Richard Freeman, held the post of lord chancellor of Ireland from 1707 to 1710) in February 1808, Redesdale came into the possession of the Batsford property, and assumed the additional surname of Freeman by royal license of 28 Jan. 1809 (London Gazettes, 1809, pt. i. p. 131). There is an engraved portrait of Redesdale by G. Clint, after Sir Thomas Lawrence. Redesdale's Irish judgments will be found in Schoales and Lefroy's 'Reports of Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery in Ireland,' &c., Dublin, 1806-10, 8vo, 2 vols. His letter to Lord Hardwicke upon the state of the public records of Ireland is printed in the appendix to the ' First General Report from the Commissioners on Public Records' (pp. 309-10). He drew up the ' Report from the Lords' Committees appointed to search the Journals of the House . . . for all Matters touching the Dignity of a Peer,' &c. (Parl. Papers, 1821, xi. 181 et seq.), and wrote 'a short account' of his brother, William Mitford, which was prefixed to William King's edition of the 'History of Greece,' London, 1822, 8vo. A number of Redesdale's letters are published in Lord Colchester's ' Diary and Correspondence,' 1861.
He was also the author of:
- 'The Catholic Question. Correspondence between . . . Lord Redesdale . . . and . . . the Earl of Fingall . . .[on the appointment of the latter as a justice of the peace for the county of Meath] from 28 Aug. to 26 Sept. 1803,' Dublin, 1804, 8vo.
- 'Observations occasioned by a Pamphlet entitled "Objections to the Project of creating a Vice-chancellor of England,"' London, 1813, 8vo.
- 'Considerations suggested by the Report made to his Majesty . . . respecting the Court of Chancery,' London, 1826, 8vo.
- 'An Address to the Protestants of the United Kingdom . . . and to those Roman Catholics whose Religious Opinions do not wholly overcome a just regard to the free Constitution of the British Government,' &c., London, 1829, 8vo.
- 'Nine Letters to Lord Colchester on the Catholic Question,' London, 1829, 8vo.
- 'A Political View of the Roman Catholic Question, especially regarding the Supremacy usurped by the Church of Rome,' &c., London, 1829, 8vo.
[O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1870, ii. 284-322; Burke's Hist, of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1879, pp. 181-192; Townsend's Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges, 1846, ii. 145-90; Sir E. Brydges's Autobiography, 1834, i. 157-9, 250-1, 260-5,268-9, 298-9, 306-9, 357-60; Walpole's Hist, of England, 1st edit. i. 318, 509, ii. 77, 217-18, 221, 245, 474, iii. 46, 60; Manning's Speakers of the House of Commons, 1851, pp. 473-9; Law Mag. (1830), iii. 297-9; Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. i. p. 267; Ann. Eeg. 1830, pt. ii. pp. 473-9; Doyle's Official Baronage, 1886, iii. 103-4; Burke's Peerage, 1890, pp. 1509-10; Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple, 1883, p. 85; Official Keturn of Lists of Members of Parliament, ii. 177, 189, 201, 202; Diet, of Living Authors, 1816, p. 283; Advocates' Libr. Cat.; Brit. Mus. Cat]
