Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Botfield, Beriah
BOTFIELD, BERIAH (1807–1863), bibliographer, son of Beriah Botfield, of Norton Hall, Northamptonshire, and Charlotte, daughter of William Withering, M.D., an eminent botanist, was born at Earl's Ditton, Shropshire, on 5 March 1807. Botfield as educated first at Harrow, where he subsequently established a medal for the encouragement of the study of foreign languages, and was finally prepared for the university at Bitton, in Gloucestershire, by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1824, and took the degree of B.A. in 1828. In 1831 he was pricked as sheriff of Northamptonshire, a circumstance which led to his publishing the pollbooks for the county from 1708 to 1831. He entered upon parliamentary life as member for Ludlow on 23 May 1840, and retained his seat until the dissolution of 1847, when he was defeated. In 1857 he was again returned for that borough, and sat until his death, which occurred at his house in Grosvenor Square, London, on 7 Aug. 1863. He married at Alberbury, in Shropshire, on 21 Oct. 1858, Isabella, the second daughter of Sir Baldwin Leighton.
In early life Botfield studied botany and geology, but he afterwards gave himself up entirely to the charms of bibliography. He was a member of a large number of literary and scientific societies. For a gift of British minerals to the royal collection at Dresden he was created a chevalier of the order of Albert the Brave of Saxony. He gave a collection of British birds to the Natural History Museum at Brussels, and was made a knight of the order of Leopold of Belgium. For the Roxburghe Club he edited (1841) the 'Manners and Household Expenses of England in the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; ' for the Maitland Club (1842) John Row's 'History of the Kirk of Scotland, 1658–1637; ' for the Abbotsford Club (1847) 'Buke of order of Knyghthood, translated from the French of Sir Gilbert Hay;' for the Bannatyne Club a volume (1851) of 'Original letters on Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland, chiefly written by or addressed to James VI, 1603–25;' and for the Surtees Society (1840) the 'Catalogues the Library of Durham Cathedral.' To the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' 1834, pt. i. 236–246, he contributed an account of the books in the library presented by George IV to the British Museum; to the 'Philobiblon Miscellany' a catalogue of the minister's library in the Collegiate Church at Tong, some account of the first English Bible, remarks on the prefaces to the first editions of the classics, on early English books on vellum, and on libraries and notices of libraries—most of which papers were afterwards issued separately; and to the 'Archæologia' a description of the Roman villa on Borough Hill, near Norton. He set up a private printing-press at Norton Hall, and among the works which he printed there was an anonymous Journal of a Tour through the Highlands of Scotland' (1830). Thirty-five copies were struck off in 1843 for private circulation of his 'Stemmata Botevilliana.' This was much enlarged and presented to the general public in 1858 as an account of the family of Boteville or Botfield, and of every one connected with them. The issue of 'Bibliotheca Hearneiana—excerpts from the Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Hearne' (1848) was at first limited to twenty-five copies for private distribution. It was afterwards reprinted in the 'Reliquiæ Hearnianæ' (1869 ed.), 272–318. Botfield's address, at Shrewsbury on 6 Aug. 1860, as president of the British Archæological Association, was published, with many plates, under the title of 'Shropshire, its History and Antiquities.' The best-known of all his works is the 'Notes on Cathedral Libraries of England,' 1849. It contains much information on these little-known book-collections. His collection of pictures is described in a catalogue printed in 1848. His library was rich in first editions of the classics.
[Morris's Thynne or Botfield Family, 23; Stemmata Botevilliana, 84-7, 156, App. 33, 479496; Gent. Mag. (1863), pt. ii. 645-7; Men of the Time. 1862 ed.]