BETHELL, Richard (1772-1864), of Rise Hall, Yorks.; Watton Abbey, Yorks.; and 7 Richmond Terrace, London; later of 18 Eaton Place, London

A major local landowner, Bethell rarely spoke in debate during his decade representing Yorkshire’s East Riding, but provides a good example of a diligent county member who was useful in the committee-rooms and in promoting local bills. A steady Conservative, he remained active as chairman of the East Riding quarter sessions after retiring from the Commons in 1841, being remembered for his ‘acute legal knowledge, business-like habits, and courteous demeanour’ in this role.1Gent. Mag. (1865), i. 386.

Originally from Herefordshire,2HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 275, incorrectly refers to the Bethells originating in Hertfordshire, but see Burke’s commoners (1834), i. 451, and G. Poulson, The history and antiquities of the seigniory of Holderness (1840), i. 408. the Bethell family had settled in the East Riding in the early seventeenth century when they purchased the Rise estate, and added the Watton estate to their properties by marriage in the eighteenth century.3J. T. Ward, East Yorkshire landed estates in the nineteenth century (1967), 39. In 1799 Bethell inherited these estates, totalling over 13,000 acres, from his distant kinsman William Bethell, who had selected him as his heir.4HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 275; D. Bethel, An industrious people. A celebration of the Bethell families (1992), 155. In 1883 Bethell’s nephew owned 13,395 acres in the East Riding: J. Bateman, The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (1883), 40. As well as Rise, Bethell’s estates included ‘considerable property’ in Holderness and the manors of Arnold, Catwick, Catfoss, North Frodingham, Great Hatfield, Hornsea, Leven, Riston, Rowton, half of Sigglesthorne, Withernwick, Carlton, Dringhoe and Hallitreeholme: Poulson, History and antiquities of Holderness, i. 416. The son of a Berkshire vicar, Bethell, who was born at Isleworth, Middlesex, had been sent to Eton and on the Grand Tour to prepare him for his new position.5J. A. Venn, Alumni cantabrigiensis. Part II 1752-1900, i. 250; B. English, The great landowners of East Yorkshire 1530-1910 (1990), 89. He came into full possession of the estates on the death of William Bethell’s wife Charlotte in 1814, and extensively remodelled Rise Hall, his main residence, between 1815 and 1820.6VCH E. Riding Yorks (2002), vii. 330-40; Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864. Bethell was appointed chairman of the East Riding quarter sessions in 1819.7Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864. He served as Yorkshire’s high sheriff in 1822, and in 1826 offered for the county, but did not go to the poll. He was returned in 1830 as a pro-Catholic Tory, but retired at the 1831 election.8HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 276-7. Although he had supported the reform bill so far, his preference was for ‘a more cautious measure’.9Yorkshire Gazette, 30 Apr. 1831.

The 1832 Reform Act conferred separate representation on the East Riding, and Bethell issued his election address that July, citing his long residence and his ‘connection with the Agricultural interests of the country’, whose welfare was inseparable from ‘the general prosperity of all classes’. He rebutted reports that he had changed his views on the corn laws and come out in favour of free trade.10Hull Packet, 24 July 1832. He subsequently observed that while a fixed duty would be the best option if the corn laws were an open question, the present system was well-established and should therefore be maintained.11Hull Packet, 20 Nov. 1832. On the hustings he emphasised his position as ‘a plain country gentleman’, ‘unshackled by any strong party connections’. Despite his misgivings about the Reform Act, he would give it ‘a cheerful and active obedience’. He emphasised the need for ‘due protection’ to agriculture and advocated the commutation of tithes. A ‘firm and steady friend’ of the established church, he would remove its ‘blemishes’. He backed the removal of restrictions on trade, notably the East India Company’s monopoly on trade with China, and promised ‘a vigilant, and constant, and jealous superintendence of the public expenditure’.12Hull Packet, 25 Dec. 1832. He also noted his recent conversion to the cause of the immediate abolition of slavery.13York Herald, 22 Dec. 1832. He was elected unopposed alongside the Whig Paul Beilby Thompson.

Bethell, who later claimed that he ‘had ever been found at his post’, proved a diligent attender in his first Parliament.14Hull Packet, 3 Nov. 1843. He generally divided with the Conservatives, consistently opposing the Whig ministry’s Irish church reforms in the 1833 session. He supported Althorp’s proposals to replace church rates with funds from the land tax, 21 Apr. 1834, but voted against the admission of Dissenters to universities, 20 June 1834. He divided against Radical motions on currency reform, 24 Apr. 1833; the ballot, 25 Apr. 1833; pensions, 18 Feb. 1834; and a low fixed duty on corn, 7 Mar. 1834. He rallied to support the agricultural interest with his votes for Chandos’s relief motions, 26 Apr. 1833, 21 Feb. 1834. He was also in the minorities for the Sabbath observance bill, 16 May 1833, and George Young’s protectionist motion to repeal the Reciprocity of Duties Act, 5 June 1834.

Bethell regularly presented constituency petitions and was active in introducing local bills,15Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864. among them the Great Givendale Inclosure Act (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 14), on which he co-operated with Thompson and Sir William Chaytor;16CJ, lxxxviii. 48-9, 207. legislation for maintaining roads between Hull and Beverley, and between Newland Bridge and Cottingham (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 93);17CJ, lxxxviii. 207, 319, 401. and the York Improvement and Markets Act (3 & 4 Will. IV, c. 162), all of which passed in 1833.18CJ, lxxxviii. 207. The following year he and Lord Morpeth successfully brought in a measure on the assessment of poor rates in Sculcoates (4 & 5 Will. IV, c. 5).19CJ, lxxxix. 14, 16, 28, 73. A very useful committee-man, Bethell served in 1833 on inquiries into municipal corporations in England and Wales, the state of agriculture, and judicial duties and salaries,20PP 1833 (344), xiii. 2; PP 1833 (612), v. 2; PP 1833 (670), vii. 380. as well as committees on the Newry and Tiverton election petitions,21PP 1833 (76), x. 574; CJ, lxxxviii. 369. and one which conferred with the Lords on colonial matters that June.22CJ, lxxxviii. 507. In 1834 he served on inquiries into sinecure offices and county rates, sitting on the section of the latter committee which heard evidence on finance.23PP 1834 (519), vi. 340; PP 1834 (542), xiv. 2. Other than his work on private bills, Bethell’s only known speech in this Parliament was on the bill for the disfranchisement of Liverpool’s venal freemen, 19 Mar. 1834. His amendment, to confine disfranchisement to current freemen and preserve the voting rights of the ‘unoffending’, who would qualify in future through birth or servitude, was defeated by 120 votes to 63.24Mirror of Parliament, 19 Mar. 1834, pg. 869. The account of Bethell’s speech in Hansard, 19 Mar. 1834, vol. 22, c. 475, is garbled, with the report of his speech suggesting the opposite intention from his amendment. On the same day he was in the minority for a similar amendment by Peel on the Hertford disfranchisement bill. He was given three weeks’ leave of absence to attend the quarter sessions, 26 June 1834, serving as chairman of the East Riding sessions throughout his time as MP.25CJ, lxxxix. 433. He was involved with numerous local institutions, presiding over the East Riding Agricultural Association, 1833-6.26Hull Packet, 29 July 1836. His patronage was not confined to rural bodies: he was a trustee of the Hull Banking Company, a shareholder in the Hull and Selby railway and president of the Hull Choral Society and of Kingston College, Hull.27Hull Packet, 29 Nov. 1833, 12 Dec. 1834, 8 May 1835, 24 Oct. 1845.

According to a local supporter, Bethell ‘spoke firmly’ at the hustings when seeking re-election in 1835.28J. D. Hicks (ed.), The journal of Joseph Robinson Pease 1822-1865 (2000), 79. He noted that he had given Whig ministers ‘an honest and independent support’ when he conscientiously could, believing that ‘a strong and well-supported government was necessary to the country’, and credited them with many ‘useful alterations’. However, he retained his ‘steady attachment’ to established institutions, stating that ‘I am not afraid of change where change is required; but I am opposed to change where it is only clamoured for from a reckless desire for innovation’. He wholeheartedly endorsed Peel’s ‘manly’ and ‘straightforward’ Tamworth manifesto. At a dinner marking his unopposed return, Bethell advocated ‘some considerable alteration’ in the distribution of church revenues, as many places could not afford to provide ‘decent and proper maintenance’ for clergymen, and endorsed relieving Dissenters from church rates. He suggested that removal of the malt tax must wait until an alternative source of revenue had been found, but believed that the new Conservative ministers would do ‘all in their power to protect the interests of agriculture’.29Hull Packet, 16 Jan. 1835.

Bethell loyally supported Peel’s short-lived ministry in the division lobbies, voting with him on the speakership, 19 Feb., the address, 26 Feb., the malt tax., 10 Mar., and the Irish church, 2 Apr. 1835. Thereafter he consistently opposed Whig ministers on the Irish church and Irish municipal reform, and at a local Conservative dinner in September 1836, he praised the efforts of the House of Lords ‘to protect every institution, both in church and state’.30The Times, 19 Sept. 1836. He spoke in a similar vein at a Conservative dinner at Beverley in January 1837: Hull Packet, 27 Jan. 1837. He routinely divided against the ballot, opposed the abolition of the property qualification for MPs, 14 Feb. 1837, and voted against Clay’s motion for a fixed duty on corn, 16 Mar. 1837. He continued to be active in promoting bills for the benefit of his constituents, successfully moving the third reading of the Hull and Selby railway bill, 30 Mar. 1836, and the second reading of the Bridlington harbour bill, 8 May 1837, in what was apparently his last speech in the chamber. His interest in harbour provision was also reflected in his service on the committee on Leith and Newhaven harbours, and a wider inquiry into harbours of refuge in north-eastern England in 1836, which he chaired.31PP 1835 (370), xx. 576; PP 1836 (334), xx. 388. His utility as a committee-man was further demonstrated by his service on inquiries into Orange lodges in Britain, Ireland and the colonies,32PP 1835 (377), xv. 2; PP 1835 (475), xv. 502; PP 1835 (605), xvii. 2. and into sinecure offices in the colonies.33PP 1835 (507), xviii. 442.

Having happily been returned unopposed alongside his Whig colleague and neighbour Thompson on two occasions,34At the dinner marking his return in 1835, Bethell declared himself pleased that a possible contest had been avoided: Hull Packet, 16 Jan. 1835. Bethell was ‘thunder-struck’ by the news that the East Riding Conservatives wanted to field a second candidate at the 1837 general election, which he received with ‘regret’ and ‘uneasiness’. However, he reluctantly yielded to their wishes, and asked his supporters to split their votes with the second Conservative, Henry Broadley.35Hull Packet, 4 Aug. 1837. On the hustings Thompson expressed himself deeply wounded by Bethell’s failure to inform him as soon as he heard of this challenge, but Bethell insisted that ‘his party had forced Mr. Broadley upon him, and that he had no option but to succumb’.36Leeds Mercury, 5 Aug. 1837. He attacked the ‘weak and vacillating’ Whig ministry and urged that ‘the good and temperate men of all parties’ should combine to form a government.37Hull Packet, 4 Aug. 1837. He topped the poll, more than 300 votes ahead of Broadley, who ousted Thompson. At the declaration Bethell reiterated his support for the established Church, but wished to ‘remove every possible grievance’ for Dissenters.38Hull Packet, 11 Aug. 1837.

Bethell is not known to have spoken in debate in his final Parliament, but was an attentive member of the select committee on the rating of small tenements.39PP 1837-38 (209), xxi. 2; PP 1837-38 (440), xxi. 278. He also served on the committees on amending the Highways Act (1837),40He was in the minority on this committee against a proposed clause compelling parishes and townships in England and Wales to unite into districts to undertake highway repairs: PP 1837-38 (463), xxiii. 254. and on the Wicken enclosure bill (1840).41PP 1840 (570), xlv. 30. The following year he chaired the committee on the Kingston-upon-Hull docks bill, a significant measure for his constituency.42PP 1841 sess. 1 (83), ix. 239. He generally joined the Conservatives in the division lobbies, backing Lord Sandon’s motion criticising the Melbourne ministry’s Canadian policy, 7 Mar. 1838, and opposing the appropriation of Irish church revenues, 15 May 1838, but he supported ministers in objecting to the immediate cessation of slave apprenticeships, 28 May 1838, despite having presented several constituency petitions to the contrary.43Among the petitions Bethell presented for the immediate abolition of colonial slavery was one from the ladies of Hull, 27 Mar. 1838. He also presented petitions in support of the corn laws and divided against Charles Villiers’s anti-corn law motions, 15 Mar. 1838, 18 Mar. 1839.44These included a petition from the East Riding, 20 May 1841. Bethell’s attendance waned in the 1840 session. He paired off from the end of January 1840 until mid-March,45Hull Packet, 31 Jan. 1840. and was absent from the division on Villiers’s motion that June due to ill health.46Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 6 June 1840. He was, however, present to support Peel’s motion of no confidence in the Whig ministry, 4 June 1841.

At the 1841 election Bethell retired, concerned that at his age he risked becoming ‘unequal’ to the ‘faithful and assiduous discharge’ of his parliamentary duties.47Hull Packet, 18 June 1841. His services were recognised with the presentation to him of a portrait, funded by 700 subscribers. Receiving this in 1843, he reiterated that he had retired from Parliament because ‘he found the labours annually increased, whilst his own strength was less firm than before’.48Hull Packet, 3 Nov. 1843. Nonetheless he remained active in public life for several years thereafter. In February 1844 he spoke at protectionist meetings at York and Beverley, chairing the latter, at which he attacked the Anti-Corn Law League’s ‘violent and outrageous proceedings’ and urged that the agricultural interest must either ‘be trodden upon or place ourselves in a defensive position’.49York Herald, 24 Feb. 1844. He chaired another protectionist meeting at Beverley in 1846 and was also involved with the East Riding Agricultural Protection Society.50Hull Packet, 13 Feb. 1846; York Herald, 14 Feb. 1846. He proposed his former colleague, Henry Broadley, at the East Riding nomination in 1847.51Leeds Mercury, 7 Aug. 1847. Alongside these political interests, Bethell was a generous supporter of local institutions, particularly those connected with the Anglican church.52Among the causes he supported were the restoration of York minster and the East Riding branches of the Protestant Lay Union and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: York Herald, 1 Aug. 1840, 8 Oct. 1842; Morning Post, 5 Nov. 1838; Hull Packet, 23 June 1843. In 1843 he laid the first stone of a new parish church at Leven, where he was lord of the manor, giving an acre of ground and £500 towards the building.53Gent. Mag. (1843), ii. 301. He replaced the church at Rise with a new building, at a cost of around £4,000, which was consecrated in 1845 by his younger brother Christopher, bishop of Bangor.54The Ecclesiologist (1846), v. 78; North Wales Chronicle, 18 Nov. 1845. He was also patron of the living of Watton.55S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of England (1844), iv. 480. In 1842 he chaired the first public meeting of the Yorkshire Architectural Society, which aimed to promote the study of ecclesiastical architecture.56Hull Packet, 14 Oct. 1842.

Bethell continued as chairman of the East Riding quarter sessions until 1850, displaying ‘an impartiality of feeling, a soundness of judgment, a patient care in the mastery of all details, an anxiety to administer complete justice’.57Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864. Following his retirement from the position that October,58The Standard, 22 Oct. 1850. he was presented with an appreciative address from local attorneys and solicitors.59Hull Packet, 8 Nov. 1850. He remained a local magistrate, and deputised as vice-lieutenant of the East Riding from 1857-9 while the lord lieutenant, the earl of Carlisle, was absent in Ireland as viceroy. He also served as chairman of the Skirlaugh poor law guardians until retiring in 1860 at the age of 88.60Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864.

‘Beloved and honoured by all’,61Hicks, Journal of Joseph Robinson Pease, 248. Bethell died at Rise Hall on Christmas Day 1864, and was buried in the churchyard at Rise.62Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864, 6 Jan. 1865. Rise Hall has recently been the subject of major restoration work and has featured in a Channel 4 television series. He left effects valued at under £30,000.63National Probate Calendar, 17 Feb. 1865. His property at Rise and the bulk of his personal estate passed to his nephew William Froggatt Bethell (1809-79),64Leeds Mercury, 15 Mar. 1879. William Froggatt Bethell’s date of death is inaccurately given in HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 277, as 1889. the son of Bethell’s younger brother George (d. 1857), who had been managing Rise for his uncle for several years.65Hull Packet, 30 Dec. 1864. William’s second son, George Richard Bethell (1849-1919), followed in Bethell’s footsteps, sitting as Conservative MP for the Holderness division of the East Riding, 1885-1900.66George Richard Bethell also unsuccessfully contested Holderness as a free trader, backed by the local Liberal association, in January 1910. Family and estate papers relating to the Bethells are held by the East Riding of Yorkshire Archives and Hull City Archives.