Stephen Cave

Sir Stephen Cave GCB PC (December 28 1820 – June 6 1880), was an English politician.

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 with Frances, only daughter of Henry Locock, M.D., of London. The banker Sir Charles Cave, 1st Baronet, was his younger brother. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1843, and M.A. in 1846.

Being called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 20 November 1846, he commenced his career by going the western circuit. He married, on 7 September 1852, Emma Jane, eldest daughter of the Rev. William Smyth of Elkington Hall, Lincolnshire. On 29 April 1859 he entered parliament in the conservative interest for New Shoreham, and retained his seat for that constituency to 24 March 1880. He was sworn a member of the privy council on 10 July 1866, and served as Paymaster-General and Vice-President of the Board of Trade from that date to December 1868; in 1866 he was appointed chief commissioner for negotiating a fishery convention in Paris.

As Judge Advocate General and Paymaster-General he acted from 25 February 1874 to November 1875, and from that date to 24 March 1880 as Paymaster-General only. In December 1875 he was sent on a special mission to Egypt, charged by Lord Beaconsfield to report on the financial condition of that country; he returned in March 1876, and was nominated a G.C.B. on 20 March 1880.

He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, of the Zoological Society, and of other learned societies; chairman of the West India Committee, and a director of the Bank of England and of the London Dock Company.

He died at Chambéry, Savoy, on 6 June 1880.

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

*DNB