Sir Thomas Lawrence, Pra, Fsra, 1750-1820 Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester Pc, Frs 1757 – 1829

Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA, FSRA, 1750-1820

Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester PC, FRS 1757 – 1829

9th November 1825

oil on canvas

62 x 75 cm. (30 x 25in.)

There is an identical portrait of the same sitter By Sir Thomas Lawrece, PRA in the Parlimentary Art Collection at Westminster, Accession number: WOA 2725 and given by Lord Colechester in 1825, this portrait is catalogued as after the original, but it is likely that it is a studio version.

Abbot, Charles, first Baron Colchester (1757–1829), speaker of the House of Commons, was born on 14 October 1757 at Abingdon, Berkshire, the son of the Revd John Abbot (d. 1760), a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and rector of All Saints, Colchester, and his wife, Sarah, the daughter of Jonathan Farr, a citizen and draper of London. He was educated at Westminster School from 1763 and at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1776, winning the college prize for Latin verse in his first year and the chancellor's prize the year after. In 1778–9 he studied civil law in Geneva and obtained a doctorate, which was complemented by bachelor's and doctoral degrees in English civil law in 1783 and 1793. Elected Vinerian scholar by the University of Oxford in 1781, he was promoted to a residential fellowship in 1786. After being called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1783 and joining the Oxford and Chester circuits, he surrendered his fellowship in 1792 to practise in the equity courts.

Although Abbot earned some £1500 per annum as a barrister, he found the work uncongenial. He had aimed at a mastership in chancery, but upon his elder brother's death in 1794 he opted instead to succeed him in the relatively undemanding office of clerk of the rules in king's bench, worth £2700 a year. Some contemporaries sneered at his decision to serve personally as clerk rather than through a deputy. This office, noted Sylvester Douglas, was ‘scarcely compatible with the description of a gentleman’ (NL Scot., Glenbervie MSS, diary, 7, fols. 26–31). But the lighter workload and financial security gave Abbot the opportunity to pursue his twin passions for the preservation of historical records and the promotion of administrative reform. In 1795 he published two treatises, The Practice of the Chester Circuit and Rules and Orders on the Plea Side of King's Bench. On 29 December 1796 he married Elizabeth (1760/61–1847), the daughter of Sir Philip Gibbes, first baronet, of Spring Head, Barbados, and his wife, Agnes Osborne. They had two sons.

Abbot sought entry into the Commons in 1790 and was involved in a double return, which was determined against him. His electoral patron was a former schoolfellow, the fifth duke of Leeds, who brought him in for Helston, Cornwall, at the next vacancy in June 1795. Abbot soon made it clear that he intended to pursue an independent political line, giving conspicuous support to the government's repressive legislation of 1795, notwithstanding his patron's opposition and a hostile petition from his constituents. Abbot's speech in favour of the Seditious Meetings Bill on 3 December earned the approbation of both king and prime minister. He also demonstrated a keen interest in the business of legislation, gaining the approval of the speaker, Henry Addington, who became one of his staunchest supporters. On 14 March 1796 Abbot proposed an inquiry into the manner of dealing with expiring laws. He chaired the subsequent committee and delivered the report in June which thereby established a rational system of annual tables so that no time-limited act should expire unnoticed. From 2 November he presided over a committee to regulate the promulgation of the statutes. His report delivered the following year saved £14,000 and enabled government offices and law courts to function more efficiently.

At the general election of 1796 Abbot retained Helston, having rejected offers to s