Beriah Botfield

Beriah BotfieldFRSFRSEFSAFRGS(5 March 1807 – 7 August 1863) was aBritish Member of ParliamentrepresentingLudlowinShropshireas aConservative.He was also a noted bibliographer, geologist and botanist.

Life

He was born on 5 March 1807 inEarl's Ditton,Shropshire, the son of Beriah Botfield (brother ofThomas Botfield, F.R.S.) of Norton Hall,Northamptonshire,(died 1813) and Charlotte, daughter ofWilliam Withering.He was educated atHarrow Schooland thenChrist Church,Oxford University,graduating BA in 1828.

He inherited the family's extensive coal mining and ironmaking business, which was based in Shropshire. Perhaps not so surprisingly, Beriah Botfield entered into political affairs.

In 1831 he became High Sheriff ofNorthamptonshire.

In 1840, Beriah was elected as aMember of ParliamentforLudlowin a by-election and held the seat until a defeat in the1847 general election. He did manage to regain the position when he was re-elected in 1857, and continued to serve until his death in 1863. In 1858, he had erected astone crossnear the Wales–England border on Shadwell Hill, to commemorate a pedlar named William Cantlin who was robbed and murdered there in 1691.

Botfield was elected aFellow of the Royal Societyin January 1839.He was president of theBritish Archaeological Association.He was made a knight of theOrder of Albert the BraveofSaxonyfor presenting a collection of British minerals to the royal collection atDresdenand a knight of theOrder of Leopold (Belgium)after presenting a taxidermy collection of British birds toBrusselsNatural History Museum.

He served as a Cornet in the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1845,and was treasurer of theSalop InfirmaryinShrewsburyin 1859.

Beriah Botfield died on 7 August 1863, at his home atGrosvenor Square,London,at the age of fifty-six.

In his will he left a considerable bequest to theInstitution of Civil Engineers,and his collections of early printed and colour plate books and paintings, mainly Dutch landscapes to theMarquess of Bath,with whose family he claimed tenuous links. Most of the collections remained atLongleat.

Works

Beriah was a well known bibliographer who set up a private printing press at his home in Norton Hall. Among the works which he printed there was an anonymousJournal of a Tour through the Highlands of Scotland(1830).temmata Botevilliana(1843) was printed for a private collection, then much enlarged and presented to the general public in 1858, as an account of the family of Boteville or Botfield. The issue ofBibliotheca Hearniana—excerpts from the Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Hearne(1848) was afterwards reprinted in theReliquiæ Hearnianæ(1869 ed.).

Family

On 21 October 1858, Beriah married Isabella Leighton inAlberbury,Shropshire. She was the second daughter ofSir Baldwin Leighton, the Seventh Baronet,who was also a Conservative party politician.They had no children.

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Courtney, William Prideaux (1886). "Botfield, Beriah".InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 443–444.

External links

• Hansard1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Beriah Botfield
• Botfield Family Archive,John Rylands Library,University of Manchester