Bankes, William John, 1786-1855
- GB-2014-WSA-02599
- Person
- 1786-1855
BANKES, WILLIAM JOHN, second son of Henry Bankes (qv); b. 11 Dec 1786; adm. 12 Apr 1794; in school lists 1795, 1797, 1801, May 1803; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. fellow commoner 22 Jun 1803, aged 16, matr. Lent 1806; BA 1808; MA 1811; MP Truro 2 Jul 1810 -2, Cambridge Univ. 27 Nov 1822-6, Marlborough 23 Mar 1829 -32, Dorset 1832-4; one of Lord Byron’s early friends and “the father of all mischiefs” (see The Works of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, 1898, vol. i, 120, 151, 152); travelled extensively in the Mediterranean and Near East; member, Society of Dilettanti, 1821; inherited Soughton Hall estate, Flintshire 1815; High Sheriff, Merioneth 1829; translated from the Italian an autobiographical memoir of Giovanni Finati, 1830; succeeded to father’s Dorset estates 1834, but his private life gave rise to scandal and he lived permanently abroad after 1840; DL JP Dorset; d. unm. at Venice 15 Apr 1855. DNB.