Bunsen Christian Charles Josias

Bunsen, Christian Charles Josias, Baron von, diplomatist and writer, was born in 1791 at Corbach, in the principality of Waldeck, his father being a pensioned soldier. From school he went to Marburg university, and thence to Gottingen. Becoming private tutor to Mr. Astor of New York, he had an opportunity of travelling. At Berlin in 1815 he became acquainted with Niebuhr, on whose recommendation he received the appointment in 1818 of secretary of the Prussian legation at Rome, gaining the position of resident, minister in 1827. Recalled from Rome in 1838, he came to England, where, excepting a short stay as Prussian ambassador to Switzerland in 1839-41, he remained during the rest of his official life, which ended with the breaking out of the Eastern question in 1854. He thereafter retired to Heidelberg, and finally settling at Bonn, died there in 1860. Bunsen was highly esteemed in England, with which he was connected by more than one tie. Among his works were The Church of the Future, Egypt's Place in Universal History, Hippolytus and his Time, and Bible Commentary for the Community, his chief work. His Memoirs were published in 1868 by his widow, who was the eldest daughter of Mr. B. Waddington, of Llanover, Monmouthshire.