Colchester

Colchester, CHARLES ABBOT, LORD, Speaker of the House of Commons, was born at Abingdon, Berkshire, 14th October 1757. He was educated at Westminster School (1763–75) and Christ Church College, Oxford, and in 1779 entered the Middle Temple. In 1792 his practice was bringing him £1500 per annum; and two years later he received the post, worth £2700, of clerk of the rules in the Court of King's Bench. Returned to parliament as a strong Tory in 1795, he effected in his first session an improvement in the legislation regarding temporary and expiring laws; and it is due to his exertions that municipal bodies receive a copy of all new acts as soon as they are printed. The country is mainly indebted to him for the Private Bill Office and for the royal record commission, whose proceedings he for many years superintended. But his greatest service was in the Act (1800) for taking the first census. In 1802 he was elected Speaker, the duties of which high and honourable office he continued to discharge with as much impartiality as distinction until May 1817, when ill-health compelled him to resign. He received a pension of £4000 a year, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Colchester, his father having been rector of All Saints, Colchester. He died 7th May 1829. See his Diary and Correspondence (3 vols. 1861), edited by his son Charles, second Lord Colchester (1798-1867), who was postmaster-general in 1858.