William Bodkin (judge)

Sir William Henry Bodkin (5 August 1791[1] – 26 March 1874[2]) was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1841 to 1847, before becoming a judge.

In 1818 he was the leading founder and became honorary secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity, a position he held until 1830; and from 1921 he acted as the perhaps disproportionately salaried "assistant manager" of the Society's inquiry and relief office, receiving £300 per annum plus bonuses.

[a] The assertion is made that he used the connections afforded by his work with that society, to "launch himself as a barrister".

[3] Bodkin was defeated at the 1847 general election[8] as a result of his support for the free trade measures introduced by Sir Robert Peel.

[1][3] He was president of the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution and he wrote several pamphlets on the English Poor Laws.