Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 2nd Baronet (16 February 1807 – 13 June 1862)Leigh Rayment, ''The Baronetage of England, Ireland, Nova Scotia, Great Britain and the United Kingdom'', (accessed 12 Aug 2014). was a British nobleman who translated the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

version of the Bible into English.

Life

Lancelot Brenton was the second of four children of Sir Jahleel Brenton, 1st Baronet, a

Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...

in the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

who was made a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

for services to

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

. It was this title that Lancelot Brenton inherited (his older brother John Jervis Brenton having died in 1817). Lancelot however didn't inherit his father's acceptance of war; when he re-edited his father's biography he made it clear that he was a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. Brenton matriculated at

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

in 1824, graduating B.A. in 1828. He was ordained by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1830. By December 1831, he had left the established Church to found an independent chapel in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

with a friend, William Moreshead.Peter L. Embley
''The Origins and Early Development of the Plymouth Brethren''
p. 22 (accessed 12 Aug 2014). He had met John Nelson Darby at Oxford in 1830. By 1835, this chapel was associated with the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where it originated from Anglica ...

and by 1837 Brenton was contributing to ''The Christian Witness'', an early Brethren journal, and appears to have cemented his relationship with the emerging Brethren movement. On the death of his father in 1844, Brenton became the second baronet.Peter L. Embley
''The Origins and Early Development of the Plymouth Brethren''
p. 23 (accessed 12 Aug 2014). He moved to the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

from Bath in 1849 where, although married, he died childless, the second and last Baronet of his line.

Works

Brenton's

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

of the

was the second English translation available. It was first released in 1844 and has gone through several reprints and formats in the over a century and a half since. In an autobiographical piece, Brenton discussed his

views. Despite a marked naval background, he put it down to his father's

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

religious attitude.

External links

* Scans of Brenton's translation of the Septuagint at the Wikimedia Commons

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brenton, Sir Lancelot 1807 births 1862 deaths 19th-century English clergy 19th-century evangelicals 19th-century British translators Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom British Plymouth Brethren English Protestant ministers and clergy English translators Former Anglicans Greek–English translators Translators of the Bible into English