3-003-675 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lord Westbury (Sir Richard Bethell), the new Lord Chancellor, 1861. Engraving from a photograph. 'The Right Hon. Richard Bethell, Baron Westbury, of Westbury, in the county of Wilts, the new Lord Chancellor, is the son of Richard Bethell, Esq., M.D., and is descended from the old Welsh family of Ap Ithell. He was born in 1800; was a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, where he was first class in classics and second in mathematics, in 1818, having taken his degree of B.A. before reaching the age of eighteen. In 1821 he was elected Vinerian Fellow. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1823; became a Queen's Counsel in 1840; was Solicitor-General from December, 1852, till November, 1856, and Attorney-General from that date till March, 1858. He was reappointed Attorney-General in June, 1859, He at one time held the office of Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster. From a very early period of his career he held a prominent position at the Chancery Bar, and for many years has been acknowledged as its head. He sat in the House of Commons for Aylesbury from April, 1851, till May, 1859, when he was elected for Wolverhampton. In politics he is a Liberal, being an advocate for the ballot and the abolition of church rates'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.