BUXTON, BERTHA H. (1844–1881), novelist, was born on 26 July 1844, and when only a girl of eleven years amused herself by writing stories for her schoolfellows at Queen's College, Tufnell Park, London. Both her parents were Germans, her mother being Madame Therese Leopold, well known in musical circles, and with them she travelled in America, Germany, and Holland during her fourteenth and fifteenth years. At sixteen she was married to Henry Buxton, club manager and author, but still pursued her literary work as an amusement, translating a German operetta into English, and writing a modest one-volume novel, which was published at her husband's expense, under the title of ‘Percy's Wife.’ In 1875 she suddenly found herself poverty-stricken, and, becoming entirely dependent on her own exertions, she turned to writing for a living. In 1876 appeared her novel, ‘Jennie of the Prince's, by B. H. B.,’ dealing with theatrical life, which she had studied as a walking lady on the stage at Exeter. The book was a success. She wrote a serial for the ‘World’ during the following year, bringing out during the same period ‘Won! By the Author of “Jennie of the Prince's,”’ and a story for children entitled ‘Rosabella,’ published under the name of ‘Auntie Bee.’ From this period she wrote under her own name, and the following Christmas brought out another child's book, entitled ‘More Dolls,’ illustrated by Mr. T. D. White, and dedicated to the Princess of Wales. Shortly afterwards Mrs. Buxton met with an accident which rendered work impossible. Somewhat recovering, she produced ‘Fetterless though Bound together’ (1879); ‘Great Grenfell Gardens’ (1879); ‘Nell—On and Off the Stage;’ and ‘From the Wings’ (1880). The last two novels first appeared in ‘Tinsley's Magazine.’ Her other books were ‘Many Loves’ (1880), ‘Little Pops, a nursery romance’ (1881), and ‘Sceptre and King’ (1881). In collaboration with William Willhem Fenn she brought out ‘Oliver Gay, a Rattling Story of Field, Fright, and Fight,’ in 1880, and a tale called ‘A Noble Name’ in a volume published by him in 1883. She died very suddenly from heart disease, at Claremont Villa, 12 St. Mary's Terrace, Kensington, London, on 31 March 1881.
[Tinsley's Magazine, xxviii. 499–500 (1881); The Carisbrooke Magazine, with portrait, April 1881.]
BUXTON, CHARLES (1823–1871), politician, was the third son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton [q. v.], and was born on 18 Nov. 1823. Educated at home until the age of seventeen, he was then placed under the charge, successively, of the Rev. T. Fisher, at Luccombe, and the Rev. H. Alford (afterwards dean of Canterbury) at Wymeswold. In 1841 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1845 and M.A. in 1850. On leaving the university he became a partner in the well-known brewery of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, & Co. His father dying in 1845, Charles Buxton was entrusted with the task of preparing his biography. This work speedily passed through thirteen editions, and was translated into French and German.
In 1852 Buxton visited Ireland. He purchased an estate in county Kerry, and made it a model of cultivation in the course of a few years. In 1853 he published a pamphlet on national education in Ireland, in which he recommended for Ireland ‘the system which had answered so admirably in England—that of encouraging each denomination to educate its own children in the best way possible.’ In 1854 Buxton delivered a series of lectures on the theory of the construction of birds. In 1855 he published in the ‘North British Review’ an article on the sale and use of strong drink, which attracted much attention as coming from a partner of a great brewing house.
Buxton was returned to the House of Commons for Newport in 1857; for Maidstone in 1859; and for East Surrey in 1865, for which constituency he sat until his death. Buxton made an eloquent appeal in favour of referring the Trent question to arbitration; he frequently advocated the principle of the protection of private property during war, and the general amendment of international law in the interests of peace. In 1860 he published a work entitled ‘Slavery and Freedom in the British West Indies,’ in which he endeavoured to prove that England had secured the spread of civilisation in West Africa, as well as the permanent prosperity of the West India islands.
Buxton advocated the unpopular policy of clemency after the suppression of the Indian mutiny, and in the case of Governor Eyre and the Jamaica massacres. He declined to concur in the Jamaica committee's resolution to prosecute Governor Eyre on a charge of murder, and on 31 July 1866 brought forward in the House of Commons four resolutions, the first declaring that the punishments inflicted had been excessive; that grave excesses of severity on the part of any civil, military, or naval officers ought not to be passed
