At 275 years old Keoghs and Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris is the country’s 25^th oldest law firm

BORN IN THE DAYS OF DICK TURPIN, GEORGE WASHINGTON … AND CASANOVA

An Altrincham law firm, that began when Dick Turpin was still robbing the rich, has celebrated its 275^th anniversary.

Turpin was 28 years-old and six years away from being hanged for murder when the founder of Keoghs and Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris started a practice that has now become the 25^th oldest in the country.

Celebrations came to a head on Monday, 29^th September (2008) in the Market Street area of town with which Keoghs and Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris has been associated with since timber-framed homes had wattle and daub walls.

“Our story is woven into the history of Altrincham,” says senior partner Michael Sandler. “An anniversary like this is a relatively rare event for any business, particularly in the legal profession, and we’re very proud of our history.

“Four of our partners have been mayors of Altrincham and there have been few businesses, clubs and charitable organisations untouched by our service to the community.”

The branded anniversary includes the publication of a commemorative brochure and a series of celebrations in the former Altrincham Town Hall building.

The firm’s very beginning - on 29th September 1733 - derives from an indenture signed by Isaac Worthington and whose practice eventually grew into Keoghs and Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris. It was his eldest son who negotiated for the Earl and Countess of Stamford when the Bridgewater Canal was about to slice its way through estate land.

The practice’s long association as clerks to local justices goes back to the early days of the town’s 18^th century Magistrates Court. It grew through the arrival of the penny post service and oil-fired street lighting - until a series of mergers created the present firm.

Michael Sandler had trained with Nicholls, Lindsell and Harris before being invited to join nearby Keoghs where he was instrumental in the 1990 merger. There are now two offices - in Market Street, Altrincham and at Commercial Road, Hazel Grove where it still operates under the original name of Gregorys Solicitors.

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So what else was happening in 1733 when young Isaac Worthington decided to be a lawyer?

• It was a time when courtroom punishment could be measured in lashes of a whip or hours in the stocks.

• Criminals could be executed on a public gallows and their bodies hung in chains for public view.

• It was the year that John Kay patented the ‘flying shuttle’ and kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Thirteen year-old James Hargreaves was destined to take things further by inventing the ‘spinning jenny’ … but, at hardly 12 months old, Richard Arkwright had a long way to go before inventing the cotton spinning frame.

• Robert Walpole was England’s first ever Prime Minister.

• Mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton had been dead for little more than six years.

• Young Joseph Fry, aged five, had yet to create the first solid chocolate bar … and eight years-old Arthur Guinness was less than 20 years away from setting up his Irish brewery.

• Abroad … the Italian adventurer and self-professed world’s greatest lover, Casanova de Seingalt, was eight years old too.

• And, at less than one year-old, George Washington had a way to go before becoming the first President of the United States.