George Vere Benson

“ Of her early life nothing seems to be recorded ; but having married Sir John Bankes [q.v.] , chief justice of the common pleas in the latter part of the reign of Charles I, she retired with her children, on the commencement of the civil troubles, to Sir John's newly purchased residence, Corfe Castle, in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, for many centuries a royal residence and one of the strongest castles in England. Here Lady Bankes, with the assistance of a small garrison, stood two prolonged sieges, the first in 1643, lasting six weeks and ending in the flight of the besiegers ”

“ On the accession of George I, Lord Chancellor Cowper, in his proposals for reforming the judicial staff, advised the removal of Banister as being ‘a man not at all qualified for the place’ (Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, iv. 350) , and on 14 Oct. 1714 he was accordingly removed (Lord Raymond's Reports, 1261, 1318) . His public career and his private life appear to have been equally devoid of general interest. ”

“ BANKES, WILLIAM JOHN (d. 1855) , traveller in the East, was second but eldest surviving son of Henry Bankes [q. v.] , of Kingston Hall, Dorsetshire, and elder brother of the Right Hon. George Bankes [see Bankes, George, 1788-1856] . He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; was B.A. 1808, and M.A. 1811. From 1810 to 1812 he represented Truro in parliament. In 1821 he was returned for Cambridge University, but was defeated in 1825 by Lord Palmerston and Sir J. Copley. ”

“ The revolution which took place before the beginning of next term drove the new judge from the bench before he had time to render himself liable to the condemnation which in the next reign fell on so many of his fellow judges, of whom no less than six were excepted from the act of indemnity in consequence of their assistance to James II in his unconstitutional proceedings (Stat. of Realm, vi. 178) . ”

“ His conduct as well as his letters prove him to have been moderate and cautious, but steadily loyal to the royal cause. His property was restored to his family in 1647 by parliament after considerable payments by Lady Bankes and her children (Whitelocke, 270) . Sir John left a numerous family, and his descendants, who still own considerable property in the neighbourhood, represented the borough of Corfe Castle until it was disfranchised in 1832. The present head of the family lives at Kingston Lacy, not far from the ruins of their ancient castle. ”

“ BRUCE, PETER HENRY (1692–1757) , military adventurer, was born at Detring Castle in Westphalia, his mother's home, in 1692. He was descended from the Bruces of Airth, Stirlingshire. His grandfather, John Bruce, took refuge from the Cromwellian troubles in the service of the Elector of Brandenburg, and his father was born in Prussia, and obtained a commission in a Scotch regiment in the same service. The father accompanied his regiment on its return to Scotland in 1698, and took his wife and child with him. ”

“ Sir John accompanied the king to Oxford in the winter, and received from the university the honorary degree of D.C.L., 20 Dec. 1642 (Wood, Fasti, ii. 44) .
Though steadily adhering to the king's cause, he incurred the royal displeasure by his caution and moderation. In a letter, dated York, May 1642, to Mr. Green, one of the members for Corfe Castle, he says: 'The king is extremely offended with me touching the militia; saith that I should have performed the part of an honest man in protesting against the illegality of the ordinance ”

“ Bankes was sent to a grammar school in his own county, and thence to Queen's College, Oxford, in 1604, at the ago of fifteen. Leaving the university without a degree he entered Gray's Inn as a law student in 1607 ”

“ Bushe received his early education at a private school in Dublin, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, in his sixteenth year July 1782. His university career was distinguished. He won high honours both in classics and in mathematics, was a scholar and a gold medallist. ”

“ ARNOLD, THOMAS, M.D. (1742–1816) , physician and writer on insanity, was born in the town of Leicester, educated at Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.D., became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. He practised in Leicester, where he was deservedly popular, and became owner and conductor of a large lunatic asylum there. ”

“ Ashton's part was to set fire to the city, throw open all the prisons, and seize all moneys and plate at the goldsmiths', but it was to be 'death for any to touch any man's private goods.' He was tried with six of his fellow-conspirators before the commissioners of the high court of justice, was found guilty, and on 7 July 1658 was hanged, drawn, and quartered in 'Tower Street, London, over against Mark Lane end.' Four of his fellow conspirators suffered similar penalties in different parts of the city. ”

“ The fullest and best original account of the first siege is contained in a contemporary royalist publication, 'Mercurius Rusticus,' No. xi., which, notwithstanding its contemptuous banter of 'the rebels,' is probably a fairly truthful account, and is confirmed by occasional allusions in contemporary newspapers of the opposite side. ”

“ He continued to sit on the bench until the execution of Charles, but after that event new sions were issued to the judges, and they were required to take the oath in the name of the people instead of in the king's name. Bacon and five of his brethren 'were not satisfied to hold ' on these terms, and had the courage to resign their seats. The other six judges, after some hesitation, agreed to hold office,'provided that by act of the commons the fundamental laws be not abolished' (ibid. 378) . After his resignation Bacon lived in retirement until his death on 22 Aug. ”

“ The remaining three years of Sir Robert's life were spent in obscurity. He died on 4 Oct. 1691, and was buried at Hockham in Norfolk, in the parish church of which is a monument erected by him to his only son, Robert, who was killed in a naval battle in 1673. ”

“ In 1741 he attempted to carry out a more ambitious project namely to establish a trade with Persia via Russia. Having entered into an agreement for the purpose with twenty-four of the principal merchants of London members of the Russia Company, he sailed for Riga on Michaelmas day 1741, 'passed through Russia down the Volga to Astrachan, and sailed along the Caspian Sea to Reshd in Persia, where he established a factory in which he continued, near four years. ”

“ In 1704 his father took him to Germany, and left him with his mother's family, by whom he was sent to a military academy to learn fortification. Soon after his uncle Rebeur, who was colonel of a regiment serving in Flanders, took charge of him, and entered him in the Prussian service (1706) . ”

“ He received his education at Westminster School, 'where he was well instructed in the Latin and Greek classics,' notwithstanding that he must have left school at the early age of thirteen as in the year 1722 he went with his father to Constantinople. ”

“ This appointment seems to have given satisfaction to the parliament, as we find among the pro- positions tendered by parliament to the king in Feb. 1643, demands for the dismissal of several of the judges, but 'that Mr. Justice Bacon may be continued ' (Clarendon, vi. 231) . While Charles was at Oxford, Bacon was one of 'the sworn judges still at Westminster, of which there were three in number,' and presided alone in the King's Bench, as his 'brothers' Reeve and Trevor did in the Common Pleas and Exchequer (ibid. vii. 317) . ”

“ He does not appear to have achieved any remarkable professional success, but owing, presumably, to his family influence, he was appointed one of the bankruptcy commissioners in 1822, and cursitor baron in 1824. ”

“ In 1850 he was appointed to the professorship of ecclesiastical history, and two years later to the important office of regius professor of divinity, on which occasion he vacated his fellowship. In 1854 he accepted the college living of Ballymoney, co. ”

“ In 1815 he discovered an ancient Egyptian obelisk in the island of Philae, and had it brought to England for the purpose of erecting it in his own grounds at Kingston Hall. He died at Venice 15 April 1855, leaving no issue, and was succeeded by his brother the Right Hon. ”