A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Bethell, Richard
Admitted 14 April, 1819.
Eldest son of Richard Bethell, M.D., of Bradford, Wilts, where he was born 30 June, 1800. He early distinguished himself at the University of Oxford, where he graduated first class in Classics and second in Mathematics. He was called to the Bar 28 Nov. 1823, and in 1840 he became a Queen's Counsel. In 1844 he was Reader at the Inn and was elected Treasurer in 1848. Having entered Parliament as a supporter of the Liberal Government, he was made, first, Solicitor, and then Attorney-General, and on 26 June, 1861, succeeded to the office of Lord High Chancellor. This high office he resigned on 7 July, 1865. From that time to the date of his death, 20 July, 1873, in all law questions before the House of Lords, Lord Westbury took a leading part, and his decisions are of the highest authority. His inaugural and valedictory addresses before the Juridical Society, of which he was president, in 1855 and 1859, are printed in the Papers of that Society, but beyond these he left little or nothing in the way of legal literature, his fame depending entirely upon his well-remembered legal and other dicta.