Pleas in 1830, with the attendant knighthood. He became a Baron of the Exchequer in the Exchequer of Pleas in 1834, and transferred to the Court of Chancery in 1841. He was an advocate of the plasticity of the common law in adapting to the changing times. According to Hedley, he was popular and jocular, a "clever, analytical, and forthright judge, with little patience for those of lesser abilities". He never sought to be a Queen's Counsel or Member of Parliament. Personality and family Although as a criminal judge at the assizes he was instrumental in suppressing the Luddites and Chartists, he believed that rehabilitation was the principal goal of sentencing. He was dubious of the effects of deterrence and argued for the limitation of capital punishment, himself seeking to disapply it, by whatever technical means he could creatively devise. An active member of the Church of England and a close friend of Bishop of London Charles James Blomfield, Alderson supported the Gorham judgment which held that the Church was subject to secular law. He was a noted advocate of affirmation as an alternative to the oath for witnesses but opposed the growing contemporary campaign for secular education. Hedley describes Alderson as a "Conservative... suspicious of the 'tyranny' he saw in democracy". Alderson established homes in London and Lowestoft where he wrote poetry, in English and Latin, and corresponded with his cousin, novelist Amelia Opie. He was also an enthusiastic and knowledgeable follower of horse racing. While sitting at Liverpool assizes in December 1856, he heard of a serious injury to one of his sons and collapsed. He died the following January at his London home from a brain disease. He was buried at St Mary Magdalen's Church, Risby, near Bury St Edmunds. Alderson's daughter, Georgina, married British statesman, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1857. Salisbury's father, James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, opposed the marriage owing to Georgina's lack of wealth and social standing. His grandson, Edward Alderson, served as Clerk to the Parliaments between 1930 and 1934. Cases Miller v. Salomons - oath of abjuration R v Pritchard (1836) 7 C. & P. 303 continues to be used in modern criminal cases in England and Wales as having laid down the criteria for assessing a defendant's fitness to plead. Winterbottom v. Wright (1842) – Reasserted the traditional doctrine of privity of contract to dismiss a negligence