Adam Bittleston

Sir Adam Bittleston (12 September 1817 – 18 January 1892)^[1] was a British-born Indian judge who served as an acting chief justice of Madras High Court.

Early life and education

He was the son of Thomas Bittleston, editor of The Morning Post^[2] and an official assignee of the Birmingham District Court of Bankruptcy and his wife, Ann.^[1] He was named after his paternal grandfather, surveyor Adam Bittleston, of Maryport, Cumberland (now Cumbria).^[3]

Bittleston was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School until 1834, and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1841.^[4]

Career

Bittleston practised on the Midland Circuit and from 1850, was a revising barrister.^[5] In 1858, he was appointed a puisne judge at the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras and therefore created a Knight Bachelor.^[6] After the Indian High Courts Act 1861, Bittleston switched to the new established Madras High Court and served as acting chief justice, in 1866 and 1867.^[7] He retired in 1870, and returned to England.^[8]

Personal life

In 1844, he married Rebecca Ann, eldest daughter of George Hastings Heppel, of Princes Street and Mansion House Street, London, an actuary and former paper mill owner^[9] who had also made a fortune as a fruiterer supplying to public dinners.^[10][8] Bittleston died in 1892, at Weybridge.^[1] Their children included Adam Henry Bittleston, George Hastings Bittleston, John Pattison Bittleston, and Thomas George Bittleston.^[11] Colonel George Hastings Bittleston, D.S.O., C.B.E., of Ashleigh, Whitchurch, Devon, late of the Royal Artillery, was father of Mary Katharine, who married Major-General Charles Fullbrook-Leggatt, C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C.^[12]