Biographical Sketch of 

 WM. WARD TAILBY, Esq., J. P., D.L. 



HLTHOUGH the Tailby family are believed to have 

 originally been settled in Lincolnshire (temp. Eliz.), 

 the first member to locate himself in the county 

 of Leicester was undoubtedly the owner of property situate 

 at Slawston, as long ago as the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, and it is from this forbear that the subject of this 

 memoir can claim descent in direct male line. It is, how- 

 ever, sufficient for the present purpose merely to state that 

 during this lengthy period Mr. Tailby's forerunners have 

 been closely identified with the county, which, by reason of 

 its broad pastures and other natural advantages, has for 

 generations been pre-eminent as a centre of fox-hunting ; 

 attracting lovers of the chase, not only from all parts of the 

 Kingdom, but also from every corner of Europe and 

 America. 



In preference to the somewhat monotonous, although 

 orthodox, form of deducing a genealogical tree, in which, 

 with hopeless iteration, "John the ist" is represented as 

 the father of "John the 2nd," and so on " ab initio ad 

 finem " without any attempt — as a guide to posterity — to 

 distinguish between the " man of parts," the man of 

 action, and his more or less fossiliferous kinsman, I will 

 confine myself to briefly stating that Mr. W. W. Tailby — 

 the man of action, — familiary known as " little Tailby," 

 was born on the i8th of January, 1825, ^^^ being the only son 

 and heir of the late William Tailby, Esq., of Humberstone, 

 CO. Leicester, by his marriage with Elizbeth, only daughter 

 of Mr. R. Stevens, of Hallaton, in the same county ; that 

 he proceeded to Oxford, where he took his degree, and 

 having adopted the law for his profession, although he 

 did not practice, was in due course " called to the Bar " ; 



