Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale
KC,
PC (18 June 1783 – 18 April 1851) was an English law reformer and
Master of the Rolls.
He was born on 18 June 1783 at
Kirkby Lonsdale, three years before his brother
Edward Bickersteth. He graduated
senior wrangler from
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1808 and after training as a physician like his father, he turned to law and was called to the
Bar in 1811.
He became a
King's Counsel in 1827, and 1836 brought him membership of the
Privy Council, appointment as Master of the Rolls and a peerage, which he accepted on condition that he could concentrate on law reform and remain politically independent.
He was determined that the government should provide an adequate
Public Record Office and became known as the "father of record reform". As Master of the Rolls he was in effect Keeper of The Public Records. After the Public Records Act of 1838, he and his Deputy Keeper,
Francis Palgrave, the full-time working head of the office, started to organise the transfer of state papers from the
Tower of London, the
chapter house of
Westminster Abbey and elsewhere, to one single location.
He and his wife Lady Jane Elizabeth Harley, daughter of his patron the
Earl of Oxford, had one daughter.
In 1850 ill health forced him to turn down the chance to become
Lord Chancellor and he died the following year, on 18 April 1851, at
Tunbridge Wells.