Stephen Cave
British lawyer, writer and Conservative politician
title: "Stephen Cave" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1820-births", "1880-deaths", "members-of-the-inner-temple", "alumni-of-balliol-college,-oxford", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "deputy-lieutenants-of-gloucestershire", "fellows-of-the-zoological-society-of-london", "knights-grand-cross-of-the-order-of-the-bath", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-new-shoreham", "uk-mps-1859–1865", "uk-mps-1865–1868", "uk-mps-1868–1874", "uk-mps-1874–1880", "paymasters-general-of-the-united-kingdom", "people-educated-at-harrow-school"] description: "British lawyer, writer and Conservative politician" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cave" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British lawyer, writer and Conservative politician ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| honorific-prefix | The Right Honourable |
| name | Sir Stephen Cave |
| honorific-suffix | |
| image | Stephen Cave Vanity Fair 3 October 1874.jpg |
| caption | "Amends" |
| The Rt Hon Stephen Cave MP as caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, October 1874 | |
| order1 | Paymaster General |
| term_start1 | 10 July 1866 |
| term_end1 | 1 December 1868 |
| monarch1 | Queen Victoria |
| primeminister1 | The Earl of Derby |
| Benjamin Disraeli | |
| predecessor1 | William Monsell |
| successor1 | The Earl of Dufferin |
| term_start2 | 20 April 1874 |
| term_end2 | 21 April 1880 |
| monarch2 | Queen Victoria |
| primeminister2 | Benjamin Disraeli |
| predecessor2 | William Patrick Adam |
| successor2 | Hon. David Plunket |
| order3 | Vice-President of the Board of Trade |
| term_start3 | 10 July 1866 |
| term_end3 | 12 August 1867 |
| monarch3 | Queen Victoria |
| primeminister3 | The Earl of Derby |
| predecessor3 | William Monsell |
| successor3 | Marcus Fysh (2020) |
| order4 | Judge Advocate General |
| term_start4 | 7 March 1874 |
| term_end4 | 24 November 1875 |
| monarch4 | Queen Victoria |
| primeminister4 | Benjamin Disraeli |
| predecessor4 | Acton Smee Ayrton |
| successor4 | George Cavendish-Bentinck |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Clifton, near Bristol, England |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Chambéry, Savoy (now France) |
| nationality | British |
| party | Conservative |
| alma_mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| spouse | Emma Smyth (d. 1905) |
| :: |
| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Sir Stephen Cave | honorific-suffix = | image = Stephen Cave Vanity Fair 3 October 1874.jpg | imagesize = | caption ="Amends" The Rt Hon Stephen Cave MP as caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in Vanity Fair, October 1874 | order1 = Paymaster General | term_start1 = 10 July 1866 | term_end1 = 1 December 1868 | monarch1 = Queen Victoria | primeminister1 = The Earl of Derby Benjamin Disraeli | predecessor1 = William Monsell | successor1 = The Earl of Dufferin | term_start2 = 20 April 1874 | term_end2 = 21 April 1880 | monarch2 = Queen Victoria | primeminister2 = Benjamin Disraeli | predecessor2 = William Patrick Adam | successor2 = Hon. David Plunket | order3 = Vice-President of the Board of Trade | term_start3 = 10 July 1866 | term_end3 = 12 August 1867 | monarch3 = Queen Victoria | primeminister3 = The Earl of Derby | predecessor3 = William Monsell | successor3 = Marcus Fysh (2020) | order4 = Judge Advocate General | term_start4 = 7 March 1874 | term_end4 = 24 November 1875 | monarch4 = Queen Victoria | primeminister4 = Benjamin Disraeli | predecessor4 = Acton Smee Ayrton | successor4 = George Cavendish-Bentinck | birth_date = | birth_place = Clifton, near Bristol, England | death_date = | death_place = Chambéry, Savoy (now France) | nationality = British | party = Conservative | alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford | spouse = Emma Smyth (d. 1905)
Sir Stephen Cave (28 December 1820 – 6 June 1880) was a British lawyer, writer and Conservative politician. He notably served as Paymaster General between 1866 and 1868 and again between 1874 and 1880 and as Judge Advocate General between 1874 and 1875.
Background and education
Born at Clifton, Cave was the eldest son of Daniel Cave, of Cleve Hill, near Bristol (d. 9 March 1872), by his marriage on 15 April 1820 to Frances, only daughter of Henry Locock, MD, of London. He was the grandson of Stephen Cave, the slave owner. Cave's younger brother was the banker Sir Charles Cave, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford
At Oxford, Cave was involved in a fatal accident in February 1840 at Sandford Lock on the River Thames, a notoriously dangerous part of the river where many have drowned in boating and swimming accidents. He and another Balliol College student, John Richardson Currer (the brother of Charles Savile Roundell) were boating upstream of the lock when their boat was swept onto the weir and swamped. Cave got to safety while Currier was pulled into the turbulent weir-pool known as Sandford Lasher and drowned,
Cave graduated BA in 1843 and MA in 1846.
Legal and political career
Being called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 20 November 1846, Cave started his career by going the western circuit. On 29 April 1859 he entered parliament as Conservative Member of Parliament for New Shoreham, and retained this seat until 24 March 1880. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 10 July 1866, and served as Vice-President of the Board of Trade under the Earl of Derby between 1866 and 1867, when the office was abolished, and as Paymaster General under Derby and then Benjamin Disraeli from 1866 until the fall of the Conservative government in December 1868. In 1866 he was appointed chief commissioner for negotiating a fishery convention in Paris.
When the Conservatives returned to power under Disraeli in February 1874, Cave was appointed Judge Advocate General and Paymaster-General. He relinquished the former office in November 1875 but continued as Paymaster-General until 1880. In December 1875 he was sent on a special mission to Egypt by Benjamin Disraeli to report on the financial condition of that country together with John Stokes. He returned in March 1876. On 20 March 1880 he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).
Cave was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, of the Zoological Society, and of other learned societies, chairman of the West India Committee, a director of the Bank of England and of the London Dock Company and a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for Gloucestershire.
Family
Cave married Emma Jane, eldest daughter of the Reverend William Smyth of Elkington Hall, Lincolnshire, on 7 September 1852. They had no children. He died at Chambéry, Savoy, on 6 June 1880, aged 60. Lady Cave died in November 1905.
Publications
- A Few Words on the Encouragement given to Slavery and the Slave Trade by recent Measures, and chiefly by the Sugar Bill of 1846 (1849).
- Prevention and Reformation the Duty of the State or of Individuals? With some account of a Reformatory Institution (1856).
- On the distinctive Principles of Punishment and Reformation (1857).
- Papers relating to Free Labour and the Slave Trade (1861).
References
References
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/17962 accessed on 4/9/2024
- {{cite DNB
- "Cave, Sir Stephen".
- Jackson's Oxford Journal. (8 February 1840)
- Selborne, Roundell Palmer. (1896). "Memorials". Macmillan.
- {{London Gazette. (11 July 1866)
- (28 May 2009). "CHAPTER Xll".
- Foretek, Nick. (2023). "The Cave Mission of 1876 and Britain's Imperial Information Strategies". Past & Present.
- {{London Gazette. (20 March 1880)
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::