BROWN, GEORGE FRANCIS, son of John Brown, Batcombe, Somerset; b. 12 Nov 1828; adm. 28 Sep 1841 (Scott's); QS 1843; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1847, adm. pens. 13 May 1847, scholar 1848, matr. 1847; ordained deacon 1854 (Guiana), priest 1857 (Bath & Wells); Curate, St. Ives, Cornwall, 1859, subsequently Batcombe, Somerset, and Bridport, Dorset; d. 14 Jun 1872.
BRITTON, JAMES, only son of Rev. James Britton, Head Master of Durham GS, subsequently Vicar of Bossall, Yorkshire North Riding, and Isabella, sister of Henry Forster Mills (qv); b. 25 Oct 1790; in school list 1803; KS (aged 14) 1805; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1809, matr. 17 May 1809; BA 1813; MA 1815; ordained deacon 6 Mar 1812 (Chester, lit. dim. from York), priest 18 Dec 1814 (York); Curate, Ware, Herts.; Vicar of Great Bardfield, Essex, 17 Jul 1829-40; m. 22 Aug 1818 Julia, dau. of Richard Down, Bartholomew Lane, London, banker; d. 18 May 1871.
BRETT, WILLIAM BALIOL, 1ST VISCOUNT ESHER, brother of Wilford George Brett (qv); b. 13 Aug 1815; adm. (G) 11 Jan 1830; Gonville and Caius Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 25 Jun 1835, matr. Mich. 1835; rowed in Cambridge eight against Leander 1837, 1838, and against Oxford 1839; stroked the Cambridge Subscription Rooms eight which won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley 1841; BA 1840; MA 1845; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 30 Apr 1839, called to bar 29 Jan 1846, Bencher 1861-8; Northern circuit; QC 22 Feb 1861; contested (Cons) Rochdale 1865; MP (Cons) Helston 5 Jul 1866 - Aug 1868; Solicitor-Gen., 10 Feb - Aug 1868; knighted 29 Feb 1868; Serjeant-at-law; Justice of the Common Pleas 24 Aug 1868-75; Judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, 1875-6; Lord Justice of Appeal 27 Oct 1876 - Apr 1883; Privy Councillor 28 Nov 1876; Master of the Rolls 3 Apr 1883 - Oct 1897; cr. Baron Esher 24 Jul 1885; cr. Viscount Esher 11 Nov 1897; Hon. Fellow, Gonville and Caius Coll., 7 Oct 1886; a Busby Trustee 18 May 1886 - Jun 1890; m. 3 Apr 1850 Eugénie, only dau. of Louis Mayer, Lyon, France, and step-dau. of Col. John Gurwood CB; d. 24 May 1899. DNB.
BOVILL, SIR ELLIOT CHARLES, brother of William Edward Bovill (qv); b. 23 Apr 1848; adm. 28 Jan 1857 [check]; QS 1863; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1867, matr. 12 Jun 1867; BA 1871; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 23 Apr 1869, called to bar 27 Jan 1873; equity draughtsman and conveyancer; hon. sec., Elizabethan Club, 1873-9; Assist. Judicial Commissioner, Cyprus, 1879-81, Judicial Commissioner 1881-3, Chief Justice 1883-92; knighted 11 Aug 1884; Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements from 13 Aug 1892 ; m. 27 Jul 1876 Anna, younger dau. of Rev. John Tahourdin White DD, Rector of St. Martin’s, Ludgate, London; d. at Singapore 24 Mar 1893.
BLAIR, WILLIAM ROBERT; b. 29 May 1811; adm. 25 Sep 1822 (Singleton's).
BLACKWELL, THOMAS WILLIAM; b. 22 May 1808; adm. 9 Oct 1822 (Singleton's).
BLACKBURNE, LANCELOT, son of Richard Blackburne, London; b. 10 Dec 1658; adm.; KS 1671; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1676, matr. 20 Oct 1676, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1676-85 (void); BA 1680; MA (in his absence) 28 Jan 1683/4; ordained 1681; went to Antigua, West Indies, soon after his ordination; a protegé of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. (q. v. ), Bishop of Exeter; Prebendary of Exeter 15 Jun 1691, Sub-Dean 1695-1702, 1704-5; Rector of Calstock, Cornwall, 29 May 1696 (dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter 1716/7); Vicar of Altarnun, Cornwall, 1699 (dispensation to hold with Calstock, 1699); Dean of Exeter 3 Nov 1705 - Feb 1716/7; Archdeacon of Cornwall 24 Jan 1714/5 - Feb 1716/7 (but dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter, 1716/7 ?); Chaplain in Ordinary to George I (Chamberlayne 1716); DD Lambeth 28 Jan 1716; consecrated Bishop of Exeter 24 Feb 1716/7; Lord Almoner from 26 Oct 1723; Archbishop of York from 8 Nov 1724; Privy Councillor 10 Dec 1724; Busby Trustee from 18 Feb 1725/6; a gay and witty divine of remarkably free manners, which gave rise to many scandalous stories; was described by Horace Walpole as “the jolly old Archbishop of York who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession, except his seraglio” (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1847, i, 87); m. 2 Sep 1684 Catherine, widow of Walter Littleton, Lichfield, Staffs., and dau. of William Talbot, Stourton Castle, Staffs.; d. 23 Mar 1742/3. DNB.
BEWICKE, CALVERLEY, elder son of Calverley John Bewicke (qv); b. 29 Sep 1816; adm. 26 Sep 1827 (Singleton's); left May 1835; Univrtsity Coll. Oxford, matr. 7 May 1835; elected first President OUBC 1839, and rowed stroke v. Cambridge 1839; of Hallaton Hall, Leics.; m. 1839 Mary Amelia, youngest dau. of Rev. Nathaniel John Hollingsworth, Rector of Boldon, Co. Durham; d. at Lisbon 22 Jun 1864.
BENTHAM, JEREMY, son of Jeremiah Bentham, attorney-at-law, Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, London, and his first wife Alicia, widow of --- Whitehorne, and sister of George Woodward Grove (qv); b. 15 Feb 1747/8; adm. 1755; (Morel's according Bentham's memoir); elected KS 1759, but remained a Town Boy; left Aug 1760; Queen’s Coll. Oxford, matr. 28 Jun 1760; BA 1764; MA 1767; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 26 Jan 1763, called to bar 6 Nov 1769; did not practise his profession, but resident in chambers in Middle Temple 1766-9, Lincoln’s Inn from 1769; turned his mind to science and to speculations on politics and jurisprudence; his Fragment on Government, a masterly criticism of Blackstone’s Commentaries, appeared anonymously in 1776; friend and protege of Earl of Shelburne (later 1st Marquis of Lansdowne); a successful promoter of law reform and one of the ablest propagandists of the doctrine of utilitarianism; exercised great influence in the fields of ethics and jurisprudence; his published works were collected and edited by Sir John Bowring and John Hill Burton, in an eleven-volume edition published in 1843; his reminiscences of his school-days at Westminster appear in vol. x, 26-35, where it will be seen that his opinion of the instruction, discipline and usages of the School in his day was by no means flattering; two small MS volumes containing school and college exercises by him are preserved in the School Library; d. unm. 6 Jun 1832; his skeleton is preserved at University Coll., London. DNB.
BENTHALL, WILLIAM, son of William Searle Benthall (previously Bentall), Totnes and Buckfast Abbey, Devon, woollen manufacturer and banker, and Mary Ann, dau. of William Marshall MD, Totnes; b. 21 Jan 1803; adm. (G) 7 Jun 1815; KS 1817; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1821, adm. pens. 9 Jun 1821, scholar 1822, matr. Mich. 1821; a banker at Totnes c. 1823-41, when his partnership went bankrupt; m. 8 Sep 1831 Elizabeth Charlotte Cornish; d. 16 Jun 1877.