Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bingham, Peregrine (1788-1864)

by Thompson Cooper

BINGHAM, PEREGRINE, the younger (1788–1864), legal writer, was the eldest son of Peregrine Bingham the elder [q. v.], by Amy, daughter of William Bowles. He was educated at Winchester School and Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A. 1810), was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1818, and was for many years a legal reporter. He also took great interest in literature, and was one of the principal contributors to the 'Westminster Review,' which was established in 1824. John Stuart Mill in describing the appearance of the first number says: 'The literary and artistic department had rested chiefly on Mr. Bingham, a barrister (subsequently a police magistrate), who had been for some years a frequenter of Bentham, was a friend of both the Austins, and had adopted with great ardour Bentham's philosophical opinions. Partly from accident there were in the first number as many as five articles by Bingham, and we were extremely pleased with them.' He edited Bentham's 'Book of Fallacies.'

Bingham became one of the police magistrates at Great Marlborough Street, and resigned that appointment about four years before his death, which occurred on 2 Nov. 1864. His works are:

1. 'The Law and Practice of Judgments and Executions, including extents at the suit of the Crown,' London, 1815, 8vo.
2. 'The Law of Infancy and Coverture,' London, 1816, 8vo, first American edition, Exeter, U.S., 1824, 8vo.
3. ‘A Digest of the Law of Landlord and Tenant,’ London, 1820, 8vo.
4. ‘A System of Shorthand, on the principle of the Association of Ideas,’ London, 1821, 8vo; a stenographic system of no practical value.
5. ‘Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Common Pleas and other Courts,’ from Easter term 1819, to Michaelmas term 1840, 19 vols., London, 1821–40, 8vo. The first three volumes of these reports were compiled jointly with W. J. Broderip.

[Law Times, 5 Nov. 1864, p. 6; Addit. MS. 29539, f. 12b; Burke's Dict. of the Landed Gentry (1868), 100; Gent. Mag. ccxvii. 806; Mill's Autobiography, 95, 114; Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), 59; Wallace's Reporters, 330; Clarke's Bibl. Legum. 258, 301; Marvin's Legal Bibliography, 109.]

T. C.