Editing Jeremy Bentham (section)

=== Early life ===
[[File:Jeremy Bentham by Thomas Frye.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Bentham by the studio of [[Thomas Frye]], 1760–1762]]
Bentham was born on 4 February [[Dual dating|1747/8]] [[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] [15 February 1748 [[Old Style and New Style dates|N.S.]]] in [[Houndsditch]], [[London]],<ref name="ODNB"/> to attorney Jeremiah Bentham and Alicia Woodward, widow of a Mr Whitehorne and daughter of [[mercer (occupation)|mercer]] Thomas Grove, of Andover.<ref>{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2153 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/2153 | title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | year=2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://collections.westminster.org.uk/index.php/bentham-jeremy-1748-1832 | title=Bentham, Jeremy, 1748–1832 – Westminster School's Archive & Collections }}</ref> His wealthy family were supporters of the [[Tory party]]. He was reportedly a child prodigy: he was found as a toddler sitting at his father's desk reading a multi-volume history of England, and he began to study [[Latin]] at the age of three.<ref name="ucl.ac.uk" /> He learnt to play the [[violin]], and at the age of seven Bentham would perform [[sonata]]s by [[Handel]] during dinner parties.{{sfn|Everett|1969|p={{page needed|date=August 2023}}}} He had one surviving sibling, [[Samuel Bentham]] (1757–1831), with whom he was close.

He attended [[Westminster School]]; in 1760, at age 12, his father sent him to [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], where he completed his bachelor's degree in 1764, receiving the title of [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|MA]] in 1767.<ref name="ODNB"/> He trained as a lawyer and, though he never practised, was called to the [[Bar (law)|bar]] in 1769. He became deeply frustrated with the complexity of English law, which he termed the "Demon of Chicane".{{Sfn |Stephen |2011 |pages=174–175}} When the American colonies published their [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] in July 1776, the British government did not issue any official response but instead secretly commissioned London lawyer and pamphleteer [[John Lind (barrister)|John Lind]] to publish a rebuttal.{{sfn|Dupont |Onuf|2008|pp=32–33}} His 130-page tract was distributed in the colonies and contained an essay titled "Short Review of the Declaration" written by Bentham, a friend of Lind, which attacked and mocked the Americans' [[political philosophy]].{{sfn|Armitage|2007|p=}}{{sfn|Anonymous|1776|p=3}}