Cresswell Cresswell

Sir Cresswell Cresswell, PC (20 August 1794 – 29 July 1863), born Cresswell Easterby, was an English lawyer, judge and Tory politician. As a judge in the newly created divorce court, Cresswell did much to start the emergence of modern family law by setting divorce on a secular footing, removed from the traditional domain of canon law.

Family Born at Bigg Market, Newcastle, Cresswell's father was Francis Easterby (died 1834), a merchant and sailor. His mother was Frances Dorothea née Cresswell (1768–1832), daughter of a distinguished northern family that could trace its ancestry back to the twelfth century and service in the Crusades. The family owned land in Northumberland and were scions of the Cresswells of Bibury, Sidbury and Sherston Pinkney, ancestors of Edward I. Francis adopted the name Cresswell in 1807 when his wife inherited much of the ancestral wealth. Nonetheless, he was awarded an MA in 1818 and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1819. Cresswell's contributions to the common law were modest. He was a cautious judge, somewhat in awe of chief justice Tindal, and was all too willing to concur rather than to take the lead.

The divorce court

In 1858 he was named the first divorce judge-in-ordinary of the new Probate, Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Court ) to charity.