I.Early Life
Jeremy Bentham，(1)the patriarch of the English Utilitarians，sprang from the class imbued most thoroughly with the typical English prejudices.
His first recorded ancestor，Brian Bentham，was a pawnbroker，who lost money by the stop of the Exchequer in 1672，but was neither ruined，nor，it would seem，alienated by the king's dishonesty.He left some thousands to his son，Jeremiah，an attorney and a strong Jacobite.A second Jeremiah，born 2nd December 1712，carried on his father's business，and though his clients were not numerous，increased his fortune by judicious investments in houses and lands.Although brought up in Jacobite principles，he transferred his attachment to the Hanoverian dynasty when a relation of his wife married a valet of George II.The wife，Alicia Grove，was daughter of a tradesman who had made a small competence at Andover.Jeremiah Bentham had fallen in love with her at first sight，and wisely gave up for her sake a match with a fortune of ?10，000.The couple were fondly attached to each other and to their children.The marriage took place towards the end of 1744，and the eldest son，Jeremy，was born in Red Lion Street，Houndsditch，4th February 1747-48(o.s.)The only other child who grew up was Samuel，afterwards Sir Samuel Bentham，born 11th January 1757.When eighty years old，Jeremy gave anecdotes of his infancy to his biographer，Bowring，who says that their accuracy was confirmed by contemporary documents，and proved his memory to be as wonderful as his precocity.Although the child was physically puny，his intellectual development was amazing.Before he was two he burst into tears at the sight of his mother's chagrin upon his refusal of some offered dainty.Before he was 'breeched，'an event which happened when he was three and a quarter，he ran home from a dull walk，ordered a footman to bring lights and place a folio Rapin upon the table，and was found plunged in historical studies when his parents returned to the house.In his fourth year he was imbibing the Latin grammar，and at the age of five years nine months and nineteen days，as his father notes，he wrote a scrap of Latin，carefully pasted among the parental memoranda.The child was not always immured in London.His parents spent their Sundays with the grandfather Bentham at Barking，and made occasional excursions to the house of Mrs Bentham's mother at Browning Hill，near Reading.
Bentham remembered the last as a 'paradise，'and a love of flowers and gardens became one of his permanent passions.
Jeremy cherished the memory of his mother's tenderness.The father，though less sympathetic，was proud of his son's precocity，and apparently injudicious in stimulating the unformed intellect.The boy was almost a dwarf in size.
When sixteen he grew ahead，(2)and was so feeble that he could scarcely drag himself upstairs.Attempts to teach him dancing failed from the extreme weakness of his knees.(3)He showed a taste for music，and could scrape a minuet on the fiddle at six years of age.He read all such books as came in his way.His parents objected to light literature，and he was crammed with such solid works as Rapin，Burnet's Theory of the Earth，and Cave's Lives of the Apostles.Various accidents，however，furnished him with better food for the imagination.He wept for hours over Ciarissa Harlowe，studied Gulliver's Travels as an authentic document，and dipped into a variety of such books as then drifted into middle-class libraries.A French teacher introduced him to some remarkable books.He read Télémaque，which deeply impressed him，and，as he thought，implanted in his mind the seeds of later moralising.He attacked unsuccessfully some of Voltaire's historical works，and even read Candide，with what emotions we are not told.
The servants meanwhile filled his fancy with ghosts and hobgoblins.To the end of his days he was still haunted by the imaginary horrors in the dark，(4)and he says(5)that they had been among the torments of his life.He had few companions of his own age，and though he was 'not unhappy'and was never subjected to corporal punishment，he felt more awe than affection for his father.His mother，to whom he was strongly attached，died on 6th January 1759.
Bentham was thus a strangely precocious，and a morbidly sensitive child，when it was decided in 1755to send him to Westminster.The headmaster，Dr Markham，was a friend of his father's.Westminster，he says，represented 'hell'for him when Browning Hill stood for paradise.The instruction 'was wretched.'The fagging system was a 'horrid despotism.'The games were too much for his strength.His industry，however，enabled him to escape the birch，no small achievement in those days，(6)and he became distinguished in the studies such as they were.He learned the catechism by heart，and was good at Greek and Latin verses，which he manufactured for his companions as well as himself.He had also the rarer accomplishment，acquired from his early tutor，of writing more easily in French than English.Some of his writings were originally composed in French.He was，according to Bowring，elected to one of the King's scholarships when between nine and ten，but as 'ill-usage was apprehended'the appointment was declined.(7)He was at a boarding-house，and the life of the boys on the foundation was probably rougher.In June 1760his father took him to Oxford，and entered him as a commoner at Queen's College.He came into residence in the following October，when only twelve years old.Oxford was not more congenial than Westminster.He had to sign the Thirty-nine Articles in spite of scruples suppressed by authority.The impression made upon him by this childish compliance never left him to the end of his life.(8)His experience resembled that of Adam Smith and Gibbon.