John Bonham-Carter (1817–1884)
John Bonham-Carter DL JP was an English Liberal politician.Early life
Jack Bonham-Carter was the son of Joanna Maria Smith and the Portsmouth Member of Parliament John Bonham-Carter. Among his siblings was the artist Hilary Bonham Carter, a friend of political journalist Harriet Martineau, and Elinor Mary Bonham Carter, the wife of prominent jurist Albert Venn Dicey.
His paternal grandparents were Dorothy Carter and Sir John Carter, who served as Mayor of Portsmouth. His maternal grandfather was abolitionist William Smith and through his aunt Frances, he was a first cousin of Florence Nightingale. His maternal uncle was Whig politician Benjamin Smith, father of his first cousins Barbara Bodichon and Benjamin Leigh Smith.
He was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.Career
From 1847 to 1874 he was Liberal Party MP for Winchester. He was briefly a Lord of the Treasury in 1866, and during his last two years in Parliament, he was Chairman of Ways and Means. In 1879, he was High Sheriff of Hampshire, an office his father held in 1829.
He was a member of the Photographic Society of London, later the Royal Photographic Society, from 1853 until his death.
From 1873 to 1884, he was a fellow of Winchester College.Personal life
In 1848, Bonham-Carter was married to his cousin Laura Maria Nicholson. Laura was the daughter of barrister George Thomas Nicholson of Waverley Abbey and Anne Elizabeth Nicholson. Her eldest sister, Marianne, married engineer Douglas Strutt Galton, her brother was Lieutenant-General Sir Lothian Nicholson and her grandfather was the prominent merchant Samuel Nicholson. Together, they were the parents of:
- Amy Laura Bonham-Carter, who died young.
- Iona Mary Bonham-Carter, who married Philip Edward Tillard.
- John Bonham-Carter III of Buriton, who married Mary Withers.
- Francis Bonham-Carter, who died unmarried in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.
- Edith Joanna Bonham-Carter, who did not marry.
- Lothian Bonham-Carter, who married Emily Maud Sumner and played first-class cricket for Hampshire.
- Alice Laura Bonham-Carter, who married Brigadier-General Anthony Abdy.
After the death of his first wife in 1862, he remarried to the Hon. Mary Baring on 21 April 1864. Mary was the daughter of Francis Baring, 1st Baron Northbrook and the former Jane Grey. Mary was the granddaughter of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet and sister of Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook of the Barings Bank family. Together, they were the parents of:
- Mary Grey Bonham-Carter
- Arthur Thomas Bonham-Carter
- Amy Laura Bonham-Carter.
He died in Petersfield, Hampshire on 26 November 1884.
