COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, 1ST BARON (1757-1829)

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 660 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT, 1ST BARON (1757-1829) , born at Abingdon, was the son of Dr John Abbot,

rector

RECTOR (Lat. for " ruler," " guide," &c., from regere, " rule ")

of All Saints, Colchester, and, by his mother's second

marriage

MARRIAGE

, half-brother of the famous Jeremy Bentham. From Westminster school Charles Abbot passed to Christ Church, Oxford, at which he gained the chancellor's medal for Latin verse as well as the Vinerian scholarship) In 1795, after having practised twelveyears as a barrister, and published a treatise proposing the incorporation of the judicial system of Wales with that of England, he was appointed to the office previously held by his brother of clerk of the rules in the king's bench; and in June of the same year he was elected member of parliament for Helston, through the influence of the duke of Leeds. In 1796 Abbot commenced his career as a reformer in parliament by obtaining the appointment of two committeesthe one to report on the arrangements which then existed as to temporary laws or laws about to expire, the other to devise methods for the better publication of new statutes. To the latter committee, and a second committee which he proposed some years later, it is owing thatcopiesof newstatutes were thenceforth sent to all magistrates and municipal bodies. To Abbot's efforts were also due the

establishment

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement,
late
- LATE
Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

of the Royal Record Commission, the reform of the system which had allowed the public money to lie for some time at long

interest

INTEREST

in the hands of the public accountants, by charging them with payment of

interest

INTEREST

, and, most important of all, the act for taking the first census, that of 18o1. On the formation of the Addington ministry in March 18oi Abbot became

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

secretary and privy seal for Ireland; and in the February of the following year he was chosen speaker of the

House

of Commonsa position which he held with universal

satisfaction

SATISFACTION (Lat. salisfacerc, to satisfy)

till 1817, when an attack of erysipelas compelled him to retire. In response to an address of the Commons, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Colchester, with a pension of 4000, of which 3000 was to be continued to his

heir

HEIR (Lat. heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in heres or erus, master of a
house
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in Gothic it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
, Gr. xeip, hand, Sans. hat ana, hand)

. He died on the 8th of May 1829. His speeches against the Roman Catholic claims were published in 1828.
He was succeeded by his eldest son CHARLES (d. 1867), postmaster-general in 1858; and the latter by his son REGINALD CHARLES EDWARD (b. 1842), as 3rd baron.

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