Charles Bragge Bathurst

Born Charles Bragge in 1754, Charles was educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford and studied law at Lincoln’s Inn in 1772, being called to the bar in 1778. In 1804 he assumed by royal licence the surname of Bathurst in lieu of Bragge when he inherited Lydney Park in Gloucestershire from his maternal uncle Poole Bathurst. He was MP for various constituencies, was on the Privy Council, and served as Treasurer of the Navy, Secretary of War, Master of the Mint, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and President of the Board of Control. In 1796, Bathurst was made an honorary freeman of the Society of Merchant Venturers, due to his support for the slave trade. He and his wife, Charlotte Addington, had four children before his death in 1831.