A’BECKETT, Gilbert Abbot (2 son of Wm. A’Beckett of Golden sq.) b. The Grange, Haverstock hill, London 9 Jany. 1811. ed. at Westminster school; sole proprietor of following periodicals, The terrific penny magazine, The Ghost, The Lover, The gallery of terrors, The Figaro monthly newspaper, and The Figaro caricature gallery; proprietor with Thomas Littleton Holt of following periodicals, The evangelical penny magazine, Dibdin’s penny trumpet, The thief, Poor Richard’s journal, and The people’s penny pictures; student at Gray’s Inn 25 Apl. 1828; dramatic critic of the Weekly Despatch; edited Figaro in London comic weekly paper, 160 numbers 1 Dec. 1831 to 27 Dec. 1834; joint manager with Edward Mayhew of the Fitzroy theatre, Fitzroy st. Tottenham court road, London 1834 where he produced his first burlesque Glaucus and Scylla; edited The Wag 1837, and The Squib 1842, comic weekly papers; one of the original staff of Punch or the London Charivari, which appeared 17 July 1841, wrote in it from number 4 to his death; wrote leading articles in The Times one year, and in Morning Herald; wrote humorous articles in Pictorial Times; barrister G.I. 27 Jany 1841; poor Law comr. to inquire into iniquities practised in Andover union, March 1846; magistrate at Greenwich and Woolwich police court, Feb. 1849, and at Southwark, Dec. 1849 to death; went to Boulogne 17 July 1856; author of Scenes from the rejected comedies, a series of parodies upon living dramatists 1844; The quizziology of the British drama 1846; The comic Blackstone 1846; The comic history of England, 2 vols. 1847–8; The comic history of Rome 1852; wrote more than 50 plays; dramatised with Mark Lemon, Dickens’s novel “The Chimes,” produced at Adelphi theatre 19 Dec. 1844. (m. about 1836 Mary Anne eld. dau. of Joseph Glossop, she was granted a civil list pension of £100, 23 Oct. 1856. She m. (2) George Jones, barrister, and d. 11 Dec. 1863 aged 46). d. of typhus fever at Rue Neuve Chaussée, Boulogne 30 Aug. 1856, body removed to Highgate cemetery. The Critic, xv. 436 (1856); Mr. Punch, his origin and career 1870; Alfred Bunn’s A word with Punch 1847, pp. 5–7 pt.; I.L.N. xxx, 570 (1857), view of his tomb in Highgate cemetery.
Note.—There is a portrait of him by Leech in his two page cartoon, called “Mr. Punch’s fancy ball” in Punch 9 Jany. 1847, where he is represented as playing the violin in the orchestra between the double bass and the clarionet. His first contribution to Punch, entitled “The above bridge navy,” appeared in No. 4, 7 Aug. 1841 with John Leech’s earliest cartoon, “Foreign Affairs.”
A’BECKETT, Sir William (eld. son of Wm. A’Beckett of Golden square). b. London 28 July 1806; ed. at Westminster; barrister L.I. 30 June 1829; went to Sydney 1837; solicitor general of New South Wales 1841; a judge of court of N.S.W. 24 Nov. 1845; resident judge at Port Philip 3 Feb. 1846; chief justice and judge of admiralty court of Victoria 25 Aug. 1851; knighted by patent 19 Nov. 1852; returned to England 1858; author of great part of The Georgian Era 4 vols. 1832–34; of Universal biography 3 vols. 1840; and of The Earl’s choice and other poems 1863. (m. (1) 1832 Emily dau. of E. Hayley, she d. 1 June 1841. m. (2) 1849 Matilda dau. of E. Hayley, she d. 8 Aug. 1879 aged 64). d. Abbotsville, Upper Norwood, Surrey 27 June 1869.
Note.—He edited at Sydney from 1837–38 a periodical called the Literary News, of which no copies are supposed to be now in existence.
ABELL, Lucia Elizabeth (2 dau. of Wm. Balcombe, navy agent, purveyor to Napoleon Bonaparte at St. Helena, and afterwards the colonial treasurer of N.S.W. who d. 19 March 1829). Author of Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon during the first three years of his captivity on the island of St. Helena 1848, including the time of his residence at her father’s house, “the Briars.” (m. Edward Abell). d. 18 Chester terrace, Eaton sq. London 29 June 1871. Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon 3rd ed. 1873, pt. Of Mrs. Abell.
ABERCROMBY, George Ralph Abercromby, 3 Baron. b. Edinburgh 30 May 1800; M.P. for Clackmannan, (whig) 13 July 1824–2 June 1826, 10 Aug. 1830–23 April 1831, and 6 July 1841–18 Feb. 1842; M.P. for Stirlingshire 30 April 1838–23 June 1841; major 3 dragoon guards 22 June 1826–21 Nov. 1828; succeeded 14 Feb. 1843; lord lieutenant of Clackmannan 1843 to death; was blind. d. Airthney castle, Stirling 25 June 1852.
ABERCROMBY, The Honble. Alexander, b. 4 March 1784; ensign 52 foot 16 Aug. 1799; lieut. col. 28 foot 8 Dec. 1808–25 July 1814; commanded a brigade at battle of Albuera 16 May 1811; captain Coldstream guards 25 July 1814–25 Oct. 1821, when placed on half pay on reduction of regiment; C.B. 4 June 1815; K.M.T.; K.T.S.; K.S.G.; M.P. for co. Clackmannan 11 April 1817–10 June 1818. d. at his country seat in Scotland 27 Aug. 1853. Napier’s Peninsular War, book xii, chapters 6 and 7.
ABERCROMBY, Sir George Samuel, 6 baronet. b. Edinburgh 22 May 1824; succeeded 6 July 1855. d. Forglen house, Turriff Banffshire 15 Nov. 1872.
ABERCROMBY, Sir Robert, 5 baronet. b. Forglen house, Banffshire 4 Feb. 1784; M.P. for Banffshire 2 Nov. 1812–10 June 1818; succeeded 18 July 1831. d. Forglen house 6 July 1855.
ABERDEEN, George Hamilton Gordon, 4 Earl of (1 son of George Gordon, styled Lord Haddo 1764–91, by Charlotte, youngest dau. of Wm. Baird of Newbyth, co. Haddington, she d. 8 Oct. 1795). b. Edinburgh 28 Jany. 1784; ed. at Harrow, and St. John’s coll. Cam., M.A. 1804; succeeded his grandfather 13 Aug. 1801; visited Greece, Turkey and Russia; founded Athenian society 1804, of which no one might be a member who had not visited Athens; rep. peer Scotland 15 Dec. 1806–1 June 1814; K.T. 16 March 1808; ambassador to Vienna 29 July 1813–April 1814, when he prevailed with the Emperor to join the allied sovereigns against Napoleon by treaty of Toplitz 9 Sep. 1813; present at battles of Dresden and Leipsic; signed treaty of peace at Paris 1 June 1814; created a peer of the U.K. as Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, co. Aberdeen 1 June 1814; P.C. 23 July 1814; took name of Hamilton before that of Gordon by royal license 13 Nov. 1818; chancellor of univ. of Aberdeen 1827; chancellor of duchy of Lancaster 26 Jan. 1828–2 June 1828; sec. of state for foreign affairs 2 June 1828–2 Nov. 1830 and 2 Sep. 1841–5 July 1846; sec. of state for the colonies 5 June 1834–18 April 1835; ranger of Greenwich park 1 Feb. 1845; lord lieut. of Aberdeenshire 23 April 1846; first lord of the treasury 28 Dec. 1852–1 Feb. 1855; an elder brother of Trinity house Nov. 1853–54; a comr. for executing office of treasurer of exchequer of Great Britain, and lord high treasurer of Ireland 6 Mch. 1854; president of Society of Antiquaries 1812–46; F.R.S. 28 April 1808, F.R.G.S. 1830, K.G. 7 Feb. 1855; visited by the Queen at Haddo house, 15 Oct. 1857; author of Inquiry into principles of beauty in Grecian architecture, 1822. (m. (1) 28 July 1805 Catherine Elizabeth, 3 dau. of John James Hamilton, 1 Marquess of Abercorn, she was b. 10 Jan. 1784, and d. 29 Feb. 1812. m. (2) 8 July 1815 Harriet, 2 dau. of honble. John Douglas and widow of James Hamilton, eld. son of 1 Marquess of Abercorn, she was b. 8 June 1792, and d. 26 Aug. 1833). d. 7 Argyll st. Regent st. London 14 Dec. 1860. bur. in family vault at Stanmore 21 Dec. Correspondence of Earl of Aberdeen 1850–53, privately printed 1880; Edinburgh Review, clviii, 547–77 (1883); Thirty years of foreign policy 1854; Proc. of Royal Society of Edin. iv, 477–83 (1862); The British cabinet in 1853, pp. 7–43, pt.; Jerdan’s National portrait gallery, vol. 3, pt.; I.L.N. i, 461 (1842), xx, 1, (1853) xxxvii, 635 (1860) pts.; A.R. (1860) 376–83.