Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden PC (7 October 1762 – 4 November 1832), was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1818 and 1832.

His opposition to the Reform Act 1832, which he claimed treated city corporations "with absolute contempt", led to his refusal to attend the Lords.

[2] Continuing to sit as Lord Chief Justice, Abbott gradually grew weaker, and finally fell ill halfway through a two-day trial.

[5] He attended The King's School, Canterbury, from 1769, where he was such a good student that he received an exhibition scholarship on his matriculation at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in March 1781.

[10] Abbott began practising on the Oxford Circuit; while travelling there he had a fall from his horse, which broke his leg in two places and left him permanently lame.

[11] In 1802, he published a legal tract, On Merchants' Ships and Seamen, which was praised by his fellow lawyers and earned him a large amount of commercial work; it was later republished in the United States, where it was misattributed to Charles Abbot, the Speaker of the House of Commons.

After eight more years of work, however, he felt that his health could no longer take the strain, and accepted a position in the Court of Common Pleas on 24 January 1816, along with becoming a Serjeant-at-Law as required.

[17] He stayed in this post for barely three months, with no records of his work there surviving, before being transferred against his will to the Court of King's Bench on 3 May to replace Simon Le Blanc.

They were heard during the next Parliamentary session in 1831, and both passed; they "by no means established for him the reputation of a skilful legislator... the judges have found it infinitely difficult to put a reasonable construction upon them".

[24] The Reform Act 1832 led to his departure from the Lords, and is considered to have greatly shortened his life; he fought strongly for the city corporations, which he claimed the bill treated "with absolute contempt", but would be defeated.

[10] Abbott first began to grow ill in May 1832, when he wrote to Sir Egerton Brydges that "My spirit is so depressed, that when I am not strongly excited by some present object that admits of no delay, I sink into something very nearly approaching torpidity".

The disease baffled doctors, and finally killed him on 4 November 1832 at his home in Queen Square, London;[26] his last words were "and now, gentlemen of the jury, you will consider of your verdict".