386 Bradford-on-Avon. [ Old Families §& Worthies. 
Cambridge, where he graduated in 1808, having the same year 
carried off the Hulsean Prize. He was afterwards known as the 
friend and companion of the poet Byron, and became an author of 
several works of acknowledged merit. He filled several high offices 
of state, holding for some years the position of President of the 
Board of Control. In the year 1851 he was raised to the peerage 
under the title of Baron Broughton de Gifford. Some fourteen 
years ago he obtained, by purchase from the Methuen family, the 
Lordship of the Manor of Bradford-on-Avon. 
A brief notice of one or two ‘ Worthies,’ of whom we have not as 
yet spoken, or to whom we have made hardly more than a passing 
reference, will conclude our paper. 
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHRAPNEL. 
He was the son of Zechariah Shrapnel, a manufacturer of this 
town, who amassed a considerable fortune as the reward of his 
successful industry, and, together with other property in Bradford- 
on-Avon, was the owner of the Midway estate, which still belongs 
to the same family. He entered the army in early life, having 
obtained his commission as second Lieutenant in the Royal Artil- 
lery in the year 1779. Two years afterwards he was advanced to 
a first Lieutenancy. He rose through the various ranks, till, in 
1827, he was gazetted as Lieutenant-General. He was ultimately 
Colonel Commandant of the sixth battalion of Artillery. 
During a term of active service, extending over a considerable 
period of his life, he was always distinguished as an intelligent and 
pains-taking officer, in that branch especially of the service to 
which he had devoted himself. He served with the Duke of York’s 
army in Flanders, and, shortly after the siege of Dunkirk, invented 
the case shot, a destructive engine of war used by the Royal Artil- 
lery, and known by the name of ‘Shrapnel Shells.’ The discovery 
was considered of such importance, that, on its adoption by the 
service, its inventor, our fellow-townsman, ‘Henry Shrapnel,’ re- 
ceived a pension of £1200 per annum, in addition to the pay to 
which his rank in the army entitled him. 
