Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury, (30 June 1800 – 20 July 1873) was a British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician. He served as

Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

between 1861 and 1865. He was knighted in 1852 and raised to the peerage in 1861.

Background and education

Born at Bradford on Avon, in Wiltshire, he was the eldest son of the physician Richard Bethell of Bristol and Jane (''née'' Baverstock). He was from an old Welsh family originally named ''Ap Ithel''. His younger brother was

John Bethell John Bethell may refer to: *John Bethell (inventor) John Bethell (c. 1804–1867) was a British solicitor and inventor. In 1838, he patented the 'Bethell process' for preserving timber using creosote. That same year he was elected an Associate o ...

. He was educated in Bath and Bristol before attending Wadham College, Oxford at only 14 years old. He received a scholarship the next year. He took first-class honours in classics and second class in mathematics, and he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1818 and was elected a fellow of his college. In 1823, Bethell was called to the bar at the Middle Temple.

Career

Westbury was made a Queen's Counsel in 1840 was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster in 1851. His most important public service was the reform of the then existing mode of legal education, a reform which ensured that students before call to the bar should have at least some acquaintance with the elements of the subject which they were to profess. In 1847, he ran unsuccessfully for Parliament; contesting Shaftesbury, he lost to Whig politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He was successful in his second attempt in 1851, when he was elected for

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

. Attaching himself to the liberals, he became Solicitor General in 1852, on which occasion he was made a Knight Bachelor. He was nominated Attorney-General in 1856 and again in 1859, serving both times for two years. He represented Wolverhampton from 1859–61. On 26 June 1861, on the death of Lord Campbell, he was appointed Lord Chancellor and raised to the peerage as Baron Westbury, of Westbury, in the County of Wiltshire. Owing to the reception by parliament of reports of committees nominated to consider the circumstances of certain appointments in the Leeds Bankruptcy Court, as well as the granting a pension to a Mr Leonard Edmunds, a clerk in the patent office, and a clerk of the parliaments, the Lord Chancellor felt it incumbent upon him to resign his office, which he accordingly did on 5 July 1865, and was succeeded by Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth. After his resignation he continued to take part in the judicial sittings of the House of Lords and the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

until his death. In 1872 he was appointed arbitrator under the European Assurance Society Act 1872.

Character

Perhaps the best known of his decisions was the judgment delivering the opinion of the judicial committee of the privy council in 1863 against the heretical character of certain extracts from the well-known publication '' Essays and Reviews''. His principal legislative achievements were the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, and of the Land Registry Act 1862 (generally known as Lord Westbury's Act), the latter of which in practice proved a failure. What chiefly distinguished Lord Westbury was the possession of a certain sarcastic humour; and numerous are the stories, authentic and apocryphal, of its exercise. In fact, he and Sir William Henry Maule filled a position analogous to that of Sydney Smith, convenient names to whom good things may be attributed.

Family

Lord Westbury married Ellinor Mary, daughter of Robert Abraham, in 1825. His younger brother John married another daughter of Abraham, Louisa Sarah, in 1833. They had four sons and four daughters: *Ellen (1826–1880) *Eliza (1828–1916) *Richard Augustus, 2nd Baron (1830–1875) *Slingsby (1831–1896) *Arthur Howard (1833–1834) *Emma Louisa (1835–1877) *Augusta (1839–1931) *Walter John (1842–1907) After Ellinor Mary's death in March 1863, Richard Bethell married Eleanor Margaret, daughter of Henry Tennant, in January 1873. After an illness, Westbury died six months later on 20 July 1873, within a day of the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, his special antagonist in debate. He was buried in the Great Northern Cemetery (now the New Southgate Cemetery). He was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, Richard, who committed suicide two years later. Lady Westbury died in December 1894.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bethell, Richard Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Attorneys General for England and Wales Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Knights Bachelor Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Members of the Middle Temple People from Bradford-on-Avon 19th-century King's Counsel Solicitors General for England and Wales UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs who were granted peerages Burials at New Southgate Cemetery English people of Welsh descent Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria