Felix Bedingfeld

Felix Bedingfeld (given as Bedingfield in the compensation records), barrister and colonial official, awarded the compensation for a group of enslaved people on Montserrat.

1. Felix Bedingfeld or Bedingfield (1808-1884) was son of Sir Richard and Lady Charlotte Bedingfeld of Oxburgh (or Oxborough), Norfolk. Married Mary Woodward Chads in April 1849 at Portsea Island, Hampshire. Listed at 36 Green Street, Grosvenor Square, London, in 1873 and 1875. In 1881 Felix Bedingfield [sic] 'superannuated barrister Caribbean' aged 72 born Norfolk Norwich was living at 58 High Street Lymingon Hampshire with his wife Mary aged 63 and his unmarried sister-in-law Emma Charles [sp?] aged 61 both born West Indies.

2. Will of Felix Bedingfeld formerly of the Port of Spain Trinidad but lately of Pilgrim House, High Street, Lymington Hampshire who died 07/12/1884 proved by Mary Woodward Bedingfeld the widow 09/01/1885, effects £8476 19s 10d.

3. 'Mr Bedingfeld, who was called to the Bar in 1849, had held high office in the Colonies. He was Private Secretary to the Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1834-45, Crown Commissioner, Turks Islands, 1842, Master of the Superior Court, Trinidad, 1849-54, and lastly, Colonial Secretary and Member of the Executive and Legislative Councils of Mauritius, 1860-68. In 1869 he was nominated a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Mr Bedingfeld was the fourth and only surviving son of Sir Richard Bedingfeld, of Oxburgh, fifth Baronet (cr. 1661), and was uncle of the present Sir Henry Paston Bedingfeld, seventh Baronet.'

1. Jermingham Letters, University of Birmingham; Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 [database online]; London Post Office Directories; 1881 census online.

2. National Probate Calendar 1885.

3. Law Magazine and Legal Review quoted in David Chads, 'Felix William George Richard Bedingfeld (1808-1884), Barrister and colonial secretary' on the NPG website, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp124728/felix-william-george-richard-bedingfeld [accessed 18/11/2020].

Image opposite © National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG Ax64505.

We are grateful to Stephen Lewis for his assistance with compiling this entry.