Application for SCORCHED

[lawfulruffian]

Out of Character Information

player name: Bee
player journal: DreamsOfStarlightExpress
playing here: Yoite (Nabari no Ou) , Mordred (Merlin)
where did you find us? Batty
are you 16 years of age or older?: Yes.

In Character Information

character name: William Garrow
Fandom: Garrow's Law
Timeline: Season 2, Episode 2, prior to William's trial before the civil court.
character's age: not stated. Given historical data that the real William Garrow became a barrister at the age of 23, it is most likely he is meant to be approximately 25 by this point in canon.

powers, skills, pets and equipment: No powers or pets, William's skills rest solely in those of the law and as for pets, a meager salary and small living quarters do not afford a man much room or capability for keeping an animal.

canon history: William was born to a modest family, a priest and his wife, in Middlesex, England. He was one of 10 children and as a young boy was educated in his father's school at Monken Hadley. Studying there as a boy, Garrow became a master of the English language, acquainted with latin, and proficient in French, and there he remained until the age of 15. It was then that he was sent to Thomas Southouse, an attorney in Cheapside, who would become his great mentor and friend and push Garrow to become a barrister as well as attempt to reign in WIlliam's raging enthusiasm and flights of emotions before he could lead himself to ruin.

William was a fastidious student of the law and a constant presence during cases at the Old Bailey, but was also impatient in his desire to try a case himself. This impatience led to disaster when, during his first case, his over-zealous attack of the prosecution with insult rather than cross-examination caused him to lose the case and see an innocent man go to his execution wrongfully accused. Though William had been taught a hard lesson about emotions and their place in a court of law, it was a long time before Southouse felt he was ready to be handed a case again. However, when he did get a second chance, Garrow proved himself to be a formidable opponent, feeling out a way to be both mindful of the procedure of law but also steadfast in his pursuit of real justice. With each new case he began to push the letter of the law towards progress, nudging it farther and farther away from the state of stagnation it had found itself in. William Garrow quickly became a name passed about the halls of London courts as a man attempting to change the very face of British Law itself.

Yet this eagerness for change did not endear Garrow to the council of lords who benefitted from the skewed medieval laws, nor the judges who had become settled in their beliefs of justice. He became both the most sought out barrister in London as well as the most despised, and many influential members of parliament began devising ways to rid the courts of this menace. One such was to slander his name and to accuse him of "criminal conversation" with the Lady Sarah Hill, a married woman for whom William had developed a deep affection and yet with whom he had committed no adultery. However, the man that did accuse him was a man of much higher station than a mere barrister, and thus his word drowned out any attempt William did make to speak the truth by simple weight of status.

Thus, at this point in canon, William Garrow finds himself distracted, wavering in his resolve both in court and in private, and near ready to admit defeat as his own trial which dares to destroy him financially, socially, and spiritually looms over his head.

personality: William Garrow is a firebrand and an upstart. He is easily bent by his emotions and headstrong when an idea digs its way into his mind. This often causes him to act rashly and often leads to later regret when his bold actions lead to disheartening failure. However, William is also a man who learns from his failures, and progresses with them, retaining his boldness while using his experience to change that boldness into a weapon in his favor.

William is also very vulnerable, open with his emotions where most other lawyers and judges have dismissed emotion in favor of proficiency. Where they view empathy as a weakness, William believes it to be a highest necessity in pursuit of justice. His willingness to feel and to suffer with his client is what drives him in their defense and makes him a sincere man in pit of snakes. It is far from an easy thing to be, and often William finds himself deeply wounded by flaws in the justice system that harm and crush the innocent, and him with them.

In his private life, William is soft-spoken and ernest. He is a gentleman but often involuntarily humbled by the fact that he does not have the station to go with his pride.


why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? William is a well-meaning yet passionate character, and such a character flourishes with new opportunities and change. As a man who seeks progress for his country, the opportunity to learn from a multitude of worlds and societies would strengthen William and allow him to grow.

Writing Samples

Network Post Sample:

[The screen is held a bit clumsily, shifting a bit this way and that until William settles on a way to hold the Forge. He looks uncertain as he readies to speak, and there is a tiredness that seems to rest in the lines of his face.]

A-ah, greetings. [A cough to steady his voice] I suppose, given the circumstances, it would be best to start with an introduction. My name is William Garrow, and though I am of modest parentage I have found myself to be a lawyer of some success in London... [His gaze shifts to the side a bit and there is a drop in his voice] …though it is uncertain how long I shall remain so. Much good it shall do me here, I suppose. 

[His voice is strengthened once more after a brief pause] I have made inquiries and though many of my questions have been generously answered, I do wonder if there is any discernable purpose for my being brought here. The kind souls I did ask could offer no answer, and if such a thing isn’t to be found then perhaps I could at least find some means of keeping myself busy…and useful. [And distracted]

My skills are those of the law. Litigation, examination, rhetoric and the like. I must admit I am a poor excuse for a marksman, but I am sharp with a pen should anyone be in need of such a thing and am proficient in English, Latin, and French. [He takes a moment here to think, hand to his chin followed by a small shake of his head] At the moment I can think of nothing else but I also cannot deny that my sudden arrival here may have stolen a hefty portion of my wits. [A weak laugh.]

And  if you’d permit me just another moment of your time, I must ask after a Lady Sarah Hill. If that name is familiar to anyone or perhaps if she has been here, or is here I would be beyond grateful for any information.

I thank you for your time. 

[There is another moment of awkward fumbling with the Forge, William having to be show by a native standing nearby how to turn the thing off, but eventually he does manage and the video ends.]

Third Person Sample:

William crossed his hands behind his back as he walked, head bowed forward in thought and the wind at his shoulders making him wish off-handedly that the Door could have at least granted him the courtesy of his overcoat. But the thought was a fleeting one in the face of the situation he now found himself in. 

Alone on some foreign street, he could see hints of London at every turn but no London was this. That much he knew. Whatever place he had been brought to he could be certain it was not London. Perhaps not even England. What else he knew was that his manner of dress seemed to fit no norm with those of the people he passed. There seemed to be little consistency at all between one man's dress and another. It was such a peculiar thing, so surreal after the seas of waist coats and festooned hats in the London streets, that William would almost believe he was dreaming.

It would be fitting, his recent turmoil laid out in physical form. Yes, a dream of being lost would be as appropriate a reminder of his current condition and impotency as the box was reminder to Pandora of what havoc she did wreak upon the world.

But at least Pandora had found Hope cowering in the corner of that box. Would William be given any such comfort?

Lost in such thoughts William did not see a woman rounding the corner, burdened with a large basket and flushed from the task of carrying it. They did collide and as if suddenly torn asunder from his train of thought William looked looked at her in a daze, staring a moment before instinct finally reawoke in him. He offered soft-spoken but sincere apologies for his carelessness, and bent to gather a roll of parchment that had fallen, holding it out to her. She shook her head and moved to take her leave.

And for a moment William moved to do the same when a thought that dawned upon him gave him reason to pause and turn, calling after her.

"Excuse me, my lady, but....could you please tell me where I am?"

Anything else? ...Anything else? :D

Notes on the fictionalization of William Garrow:
While William Garrow was in fact a real person, the series of Garrow's Law takes great liberties with his personal life and personal character. Where firsthand accounts speak of the real Garrow as task-minded and success driven, the series fleshes out the character of Garrow with personal flaws, romances, and rivalries. The William Garrow of the series is a headstrong but good-natured young man who at first neglects the facts of the law in preference for his moral opinions. The series turns brings to light a passionate romance between WIlliam and the Lady Sarah Hill when in history Garrow actually married Lady Sarah Dore, who was only alleged to have been in contact with Sir Arthur Hill in slander. The series also constructs for William a fictional rivalry with the notorious barrister Mr. Sylvester, who works as a foil against William's bleeding heart with his more tactical and efficient approach to justice. Even the cases presented through the course of the series are only loosely based on the actual cases that Garrow did represent, the main point being the progress that he caused in British law rather than the historical accuracy in minor details. 

The series overall strives to build a sympathetic character out of Garrow who's personal character and personal remains vague in historical accounts. In the series they equip him with a soft-spokenness, a romantic nature, and almost naive idealism, and in turn force him to learn lessons and grow through fictional events such as his trial before the civil court for "criminal conversation" as well as his duel with Mr. Sylvester through which the fictionalized Garrow learns that his battlefield is the courtroom, not elsewhere. 

History does not follow that the real Garrow made the many mistakes that the fictional Garrow does. In contrast the real Garrow became a success much more rapidly and while he met resistance in the courts and the council chambers, he acquired a great many followers very quickly. In the fiction, WIlliam Garrow is for the most part having to learn from his mistakes, learn how to curb his pride and his enthusiasm, and mostly standing against a sea of enemies.