Frederick 'Bosey' Bosanquet was one of ten surviving children born to
Samuel Richard Bosanquet,
DL,
JP (1800–1882), of
Dingestow Court, Monmouthshire, the grandson of
Samuel Bosanquet (1744–1806),
Governor of the Bank of England from 1791 to 1793. The family were of
Huguenot origin, the Bosanquets having fled to England from
Lunel,
Montpellier in France in 1685 following the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes. His mother was Emily Courthope (died 1869). Bosanquet was educated at
Windlesham House,
Eton and
King's College, Cambridge, of which he was formerly a Fellow (
BA 1860,
MA 1863), and was
called to the Bar at the
Inner Temple in 1863. With George N. Darby he co-authored
A Practical Treatise on the Statutes of Limitations in England and Ireland, his only published work, written in 1867. He was appointed a
QC in 1882, and elected a
Bencher in 1889. He was a
Magistrate for
Monmouthshire and
Sussex, and was Chairman of the
East Sussex Quarter Sessions. He was the
Recorder for
Worcester from 1879 to 1891, and Recorder for
Wolverhampton in 1891 and 1900. In March 1900 he was appointed
Common Serjeant of London, an ancient office first recorded in 1291 with the appointment of
Thomas Juvenal, and the second most senior
judicial position at the
Old Bailey after the
Recorder of London. Bosanquet was the Chairman of the
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting from 1907 to 1919. He was knighted in 1907. On his retirement as Common Serjeant in November 1919 he was succeeded by
Henry Fielding Dickens KC. ==Personal life==