Samuel Boteler Bristowe QC (5 October 1822 – 5 March 1897) was an English barrister and

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politician from

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. He sat in the

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from 1870 to 1880, and later became a county court judge, surviving a murder attempt in 1889.

Early life

Bristowe was the son of Samuel Ellis Bristowe of Beesthorpe Hall, near

Caunton Caunton is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire on the A616, north-west of Newark-on-Trent, in the NG23 postcode. The population (including Maplebeck and Winkburn) of the civil parish at the 2011 Ce ...

in Nottinghamshire and his wife Mary Ann Fox.the Peerage.com
/ref> He was educated at

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, where he graduated with a BA degree in 1845, receiving his MA in 1848. He was called to the bar in 1849 at the

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, and was appointed in 1869 as

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Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...

. He became a

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(QC) in 1872, and was a member of the Council for Legal Education as well as being one of the editors of "Burn's Justice of the Peace".

Political career

In April 1870, Bristowe was elected as a member of parliament (MP) for

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, at a by-election following the death of the Liberal MP Edward Denison. After his election, he resigned his post as Recorder of Newark but became a bencher of his inn and

in 1872. He was re-elected for Newark at the 1874 general election, and held the seat until he was defeated at the 1880 general election. General elections were then held over a period of several weeks, with different constituencies voting on different days. After his defeat in Newark, Bristowe still had time to be selected a few days later as a Liberal candidate for the Southern division of Nottinghamshire, where he duly stood. However, both of the division's two seats had been held unopposed by the

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since 1837; no Liberal candidate had stood since 1835.Craig, page 440–1 Bristowe polled a poor third, behind the two successful Conservative candidates.

Judge

After leaving Parliament, Bristowe was a County Court Judge from 1880 to 1891. He was appointed initially to the Midland County Court, where an attempt was made to kill him in 1889. At a sitting of the Nottingham District County Court, Bristowe had dismissed a civil action in which a German manufacturer of

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sued someone for the value of a set of teeth. The plaintiff, William Edward Arnemann, who lived in Nottingham, had previously been prosecuted for falsely advertising himself as a dentist. He had brought several similar cases for non-payment, most of which failed because the teeth did not fit. On this occasion, he denounced the ruling, claiming that he was being outlawed. After court sittings, Bristowe routinely left Nottingham on the 5.40pm

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train to return to his home at

West Hallam West Hallam is a large village and civil parish close to Ilkeston in the county of Derbyshire in the East Midlands region of England. West Hallam has had its own parish council since 1894 and, since 1974, has been part of the Erewash borough. T ...

in Derbyshire, and on this occasion was followed unobserved by Arnemann, who bought a ticket to the same destination and followed the judge onto the platform. When Bristowe went to board his first-class carriage, Arnemann shot him in the back, firing one shot from a full-loaded six-chambered revolver. Bristowe collapsed unconscious, but recovered consciousness before being taken to hospital. ''The Times'' newspaper reported that Arnemann said "I have had his blood; I wish I may have killed him". The bullet was not removed, and remained in Bristowe's body until his death. Later in 1891 he was succeeded as Treasurer of the

by William Pearson, Karl Pearson's father. Mr. William Pearson, Q. C., has been elected Treasurer of the Inner Temple for the ensuing succession to his Honour Judge Bristowe, Q.C. (28 November 1891). ''The Morning Post'' (London, England), (37272), 5.

Family

Bristowe married Albertine Eugenie Elizabeth Lavit, daughter of Jean Jacques Lavit of Paris and Isabella Roper, on 1 July 1856. He lived at Beesthorpe, Nottinghamshire and died at St Leonards on Sea, aged 74. His brother, Sir Henry Fox Bristowe, Q.C., was Vice-Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.National Archives – Bristowe of Beesthorpe
/ref> Samuel's son, the Rev. Charles John Bristowe, served from 1902 to 1911 as the first Director of Education for Nottinghamshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bristowe, Samuel 1822 births 1897 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1868–1874 19th-century English judges Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People from Newark and Sherwood (district) Members of the Inner Temple People from the Borough of Erewash County Court judges (England and Wales)