Nathaniel Bousfield
English politician
Nathaniel George Philips Bousfield (1829 – 21 May 1883) was a Liverpool cotton merchant, a leading Volunteer officer, and a Conservative Party politician.
Volunteer Force
Bousfield was an enthusiast for the Volunteer movement. He and 20 fellow gentlemen offered to form a corps in 1852, but this was declined. He founded the Liverpool Drill Club in 1855 with men from the cotton trade, who drilled twice weekly in his warehouse. A further offer to form a volunteer corps was declined in 1857, despite the support of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Duncan MacDougall of the Royal Lancashire Militia Artillery. However, during the invasion scare of 1859 a public meeting in London led to calls for national Volunteer Force, and Bousfield and MacDougall renewed their offer. When the government gave in to the pressure, Bousfield's commission as Captain-Commandant of the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps, dated 11 June 1859, was the first to be issued in the new force. He later served as Major when the corps expanded to a full battalion.
Political career
Bousfield was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath from 31 January 1874 to 1880.
Personal life
Nathaniel was married to Catherine Barratt Bousfield.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nathaniel Bousfield” as english politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21068967. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1829, 1883, 1852 and 1855.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Nathaniel Bousfield”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Nathaniel Bousfield primary sources, Nathaniel Bousfield archive and Nathaniel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nathaniel Bousfield”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Nathaniel Bousfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.