Sergeant-at-law
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Serjeant Thomas D'Oyly was his eldest son. The family lived at Buxted
Thomas D'Oyly described himself as a Barrister at Law and a Fellow of All Souls, Oxford c.1815 (5). By 1819 he had been promoted to the office of Serjeant at Law (6). His office was at No 4, Kings Bench Walks, Temple, but glimpses of his work on circuit and on the County Bench can be detected in these and other mss. in ESRO. He is noted as a circuit judge in 1816 (7), as a magistrate on the East Sussex Bench in 1825 (8) and as an assize judge in Lewes in 1828 (9). His family connections and properties in West Sussex ensured him a position in that County and in 1834 his work as Chairman of the Western Sessions earned him the warm appreciation of Lord Egremont at Petworth House (10). In 1836 his opinion was consulted by the Commissioners of Lewes and Laughton Levels re vandalism to the sea wall and in 1812 he acted as Enclosure Commissioner for the Manor of Warningore in Chailey (11)
D'Oyly kept houses both in London and in Sussex at Brighton and at Rottingdean. He also stayed from time to time at Buxted where his brother George had succeeded their father as Rector. His position in the upper stratum of society is indicated by the King's invitation for D'Oyly to dine with him, presumably at the Brighton Pavilion, in 1835 (12). The Earl of Chichester at Stanmer House was among his associates and was named as an executor of his will. Another executor named, but declining the duties when they came, was Sir Edward Vaughan Williams (13). [1797-1875 See DNB]. He and D'Oyly together edited Burn's "Justice of the Peace" in 1836. Unfortunately nothing of D'Oyly's work on this has survived in his correspondence, though several pieces in this collection indicate his keen interest in the historical record and in antiquarianism