Born in Great Yarmouth, Alderson was the eldest son of Robert, a barrister and recorder, and Elizabeth née Hurry who died in 1791. Alderson suffered an unstable childhood, variously living with relatives, unhappily attending Charterhouse School but, more positively, being tutored by Edward Maltby. He was an able student of mathematics and classics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, about to take exams he heard of the sad death of his sister Isabella. A year later in 1809 he graduated as senior wrangler, First Smith's prize, was First Medallist, and Chancellor's Gold Medallist. During free time he became an ardent debater and avid reader; winning Middle Bachelors, and the Latin Prize for Comparison of Ancient Dialogues with Modern. In his finals year he also won the Members Prize, and Senior Bachelors Prize. He was consequently elected fellow. A pupil of Joseph Chitty, Alderson was called to the bar in 1811 at the Inner Temple and began work on the northern circuit where he established a substantial practice. He joined with Richard Barnewall as a law reporter from 1817 to 1822. On 26 October 1823 he married Georgina Drewe and the couple had many children. An early indication of his abilities came in 1825 when he was instructed by opponents of the proposed Liverpool and Manchester Railway, principally the directors of the Bridgewater and Leeds and Liverpool Canals, as their counsel in the committee stage of the private bill needed to establish the railway. Alderson was to cross-examineGeorge Stephenson on his designs for the railway and the surveys on which they were based. Alderson proved an able advocate and Stephenson a poor witness. Stephenson later confessed, "I was not long in the witness box before I began to wish for a hole to creep out at." Largely owing to Alderson's devastating closing speech, the bill was lost, the railway was delayed for several years and Stephenson's early reputation badly damaged.
Judicial career
Alderson was appointed to the Common Law Commission in 1828 and a judge of the Court of Common 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.
R v Pritchard 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 – Reasserted the traditional doctrine of privity of contract to dismiss a negligence claim for damages by a pedestrian who was injured by a defective vehicle.
Wood v Peel – in a trial to determine the winner of the Derby, Alderson ordered that the purported winner Running Rein be produced in court. The horse could not be found and the result of the race was overturned.
R v. Serva and others
R v. Griffin – Alderson suggested, contrary to precedent but obiter dicta, that the principle of priest-penitent privilege applied in England.
Neilson v Harford – Distinguished patenting a principle from patenting a physical implementation of a principle
Hadley v Baxendale – Defined the scope of contractual damages in English law.
Blyth v Company Proprietors of the Birmingham Water Works – Introduced the concept of the reasonable person in setting judicial standards for the appropriate level of care owed to another.
