Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/37

 to the Bar in 1792. During his student days he read for some time in the chambers of Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Romilly. (q.v.) declared him the best lawyer at the Equity bar, although he "could neither read, write, walk nor talk," referring to certain physical and other defects. He stammered in his speech, and as regards his writing he used to say he had three hands—one which he himself could read, one which his clerk could read, and another which no one could read. He died 6 Feb. 1836. He was the writer of a pamphlet on the Alterations in the Court of Chancery (1830).



This "sage and grave man," as he is called by Camden, was Reader in the Middle Temple in the autumn of 1566. He was born of an old Norfolk family, but in what year does not appear. He was made a Serjeant-at-Law in 1565, and was knighted the same year. He was a good lawyer, and his arguments are noticed in Dyer's and Plowden's Reports, but he was more famous as a politician. He represented King's Lynn in Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth, and so greatly was he respected in the House that on 8 May, 1572, he was elected Speaker. This great position he filled with credit till the year 1577, when on 24 Jan. he was called to the Judicial Bench as Chief Baron. He died at Leominster of a malady arising, it was said, from the stench of the prisoners in the court at the Assizes at Oxford, which he had just been attending.

BELTCHER. See BELCHIER.



Admitted 7 February, 1818.

Third son of the Rev. Edmund Benson, Priest-vicar of Salisbury Cathedral. He was born at Salisbury 5 Feb. 1797. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar 23 Nov. 1821. He was appointed Deputy Recorder of Salisbury in 1829, and Recorder 1836. He died in Salisbury 21 June, 1844, and was buried in the Cathedral.

In 1825 he published Sketches in Corsica, the result of a visit to that island in 1823 as a Commissioner on the affairs of General Paoli. He was also the author of The Life and Writings of the Rev. Arthur Collier, his best known work, 1837, and of a History of Salisbury, forming part of Sir Richard Colt Hoare's History of Wiltshire.



Admitted 16 August, 1720.

Only son of Rev. Richard Bentley, S.T.P., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, the famous scholar. He became a member of Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of ten, and a Fellow at fifteen. He was a man of great ability but lacking in industry. He possessed artistic tastes and supplied the drawings for Walpole's edition of Gray's Poems (1753). In 1761 he composed a Comedy, entitled The Wishes, which was acted at Drury Lane; and another, entitled The Prophet, was produced there after his death (1788). He was the author also of A Mock Heroic, entitled Patriotism (1763). He died in Westminster, Oct. 1782.