Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley (20 May 1744 – 19 March 1804) was a British barrister and Whig politician, who served as the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was previously a Member of Parliament from 1783 to 1801.
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Biography
He was born on 20 May 1744 in Bredbury, the son of John Arden (1709–1787), and Sarah Pepper, and baptised on 20 June 1744 in Stockport. Educated at The Manchester Grammar School, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in November 1761 and received his BA in 1766.
Arden was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1769, and received his MA from Trinity the same year, being made a Fellow of the college shortly after.
He took chambers in Lincoln's Inn and became a close friend of William Pitt, with whom he would maintain a political alliance throughout his career. In 1776 he was made judge on the South Wales circuit. Invested as a King's Counsel in 1780, he was Solicitor General during the ministry of Shelburne, and again for a year under Pitt the Younger. At this time he entered the House of Commons as the Whig MP for Newtown, representing the seat from 1783 to 1784. In 1784 he became MP for Aldborough, and was appointed Attorney General and Chief Justice of Chester, posts he would hold until 1788.
On 4 June 1788, he was again advanced to become Master of the Rolls, and was knighted on 18 June 1788. He was also appointed to the Privy Council that year. In 1790, he left Aldborough to become MP for Hastings until 1794, and then for Bath until 1801.