 Bristowe was the son of Samuel Ellis Bristowe of Beesthorpe Hall, near Caunton in Nottinghamshire and his wife Mary Ann Fox.He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA degree in 1845, receiving his MA in 1848.He was called to the bar in 1849 at the Inner Temple, and was appointed in 1869 as Recorder of Newark-on-Trent.