| Robert Cooper Lee Bevan | |
| Birth Date: | 8 February 1809 |
| Birth Place: | Walthamstow, East London, England |
| Occupation: | Banker |
| Spouse: | Agneta Elizabeth Yorke Emma Frances Shuttleworth |
| Children: | 16, including Francis Bevan, Anthony Ashley Bevan, Edwyn Bevan, and Nesta Helen Webster |
| Parents: | David Bevan Favell Bourke Lee |
| Relatives: | Silvanus Bevan (paternal grandfather) Timothy Bevan (paternal great-grandfather) Favell Lee Mortimer (sister) |
Robert Cooper Lee Bevan (8 February 180922 July 1890) was a British banker. He served as a senior partner of Barclays Bank.
Robert Cooper Lee Bevan was born on 8 February 1809 at Hale End, Walthamstow. He was the eldest son of fellow banker David Bevan (1774–1846), and his heiress wife, Favell Bourke Lee (1780–1841).[1] He was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford.[2] Robert Cooper Lee Bevan, was named for the affection of his maternal grandfather, Robert Cooper Lee, Crown Solicitor-General of Jamaica, and later Barrister of London, England.
Bevan served as a senior partner of Barclays Bank.[1]
He resided at Fosbury House, Wiltshire, and Trent Park, London. His father bought Trent Park as a gift to celebrate his marriage to Agneta Elizabeth Yorke.
He founded Christ Church, Cockfosters,[3] and the funerary monument to the Bevan family is the largest single monument in the graveyard of that church.[4] The inscription to him reads, "He lived soberly, righteously and godly in this present world". His eldest son Sydney was the joint first baptism (along with Cecil, the son of his brother-in-law Augustus Henry Bosanquet) in the new church, nine days after its consecration.
He had 16 children, seven with his first wife, Lady Agneta Elizabeth Yorke (1811–51), daughter of Vice-Admiral Hon. Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke and Elizabeth Weake Rattray:
He had a further nine children with his second wife, the translator and poet Emma Frances Shuttleworth, daughter of Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth, Bishop of Chichester:
Whilst living in Brighton, Bevan saw the deplorable state of the slums, and being a Christian wanted to "push back the tide of evil and ignorance"[5] in the town.
During the Autumn of 1849 the discussions over some kind of 'mission' for Brighton were coming to a head. It was finally decided that a Town Mission should be established based on the same principles as those of the London City Mission. Men would be employed to go from door to door and they would be paid from funds raised by subscriptions from supporters.
John Bateman in his Great landowners, of 1883, lists Bevan as having:
Total: 3,913 acres worth 3,576 guineas per annum
He died in 1890.[1]