Name William Atherton | ||
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Sir William Atherton (1806 – 22 January 1864) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. An advanced Liberal who favoured the secret ballot and widening of suffrage, he held a seat in the House of Commons from 1852 to 1864, and was a Law Officer of the Crown for four years.
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Career
Atherton was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, Rev. W Atherton, and his wife Margaret who was a daughter of the Church of Scotland minister Rev. Walter Morrison. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple and practised on the Northern Circuit, becoming a Queen's Counsel (QC) and a bencher in 1852.
He was elected at the 1852 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for City of Durham, and held the seat until his death in 1864.
Atherton was appointed as Solicitor General on 16 December 1859, having previously served as Counsel to the Admiralty and Judge Advocate of the Fleet. He was knighted on 23 February 1860, and promoted to Attorney General on 9 July 1861.
Having taken an office of profit under the Crown, he was obliged on each occasion to present himself for re-election, and was returned unopposed at by-elections on 9 January 1860 and 8 July 1861. In his acceptance speech in July 1861 he called for greater unity in the Liberal Party, and supported British neutrality in the American Civil War.
Atherton retired as Attorney General in the autumn of 1863 due to ill-health, and died on 22 January 1864, at his home in Westbourne Terrace, near Hyde Park in London.
Family
In 1843 he married Agnes Mary Hall (died 1866), daughter of Thomas J. Hall, the chief magistrate of Bow Street Magistrates' Court.