Beckford, William, 1709-1770

Identity area

Type of entity

Person

Authorized form of name

Beckford, William, 1709-1770

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

      Other form(s) of name

        Identifiers for corporate bodies

        Description area

        Dates of existence

        1709-1770

        History

        BECKFORD, WILLIAM, second son of Peter Beckford, West Indian planter, Speaker of the Jamaica Assembly, and Bathsheba, dau. of Col. Julines Hering, Paul Island, Jamaica; bapt. 19 Dec 1709; adm. (aged 9) Jan 1718/9; Balliol Coll. Oxford, matr. 17 Dec 1725; BA 1729; MA 1732; Leiden Univ. 1731; a medical student in Leiden and Paris to 1735; succeeded brother in Jamaican estates 1737; settled in England 1744; purchased Fonthill Abbey estate, Wiltshire, 1745; a West India merchant in London; Alderman, City of London (Bishopsgate Ward) from 25 Jun 1752, Sheriff of London 1755-6, Lord Mayor 1762-3, 1769-70; Master, Ironmongers’ Co., 1753; MP Shaftesbury 8 Dec 1747-54, City of London from 1754; a Tory on his entry to politics, but from 1756 onwards a staunch supporter of William Pitt; gave his backing to John Wilkes; his famous impromptu speech to King George III on the misdeeds of his ministers, 23 May 1770, was subsequently inscribed on the monument erected to his memory in Guildhall; laid the foundation stone of the new Newgate Prison 31 May 1770; m. 8 Jun 1756 Maria, widow of Francis Marsh, Jamaica, and sister of John Hamilton (qv); d. while Lord Mayor 21 Jun 1770. DNB.

        Places

        Legal status

        Functions, occupations and activities

        Estate probate in 1774 recorded 1356 enslaved people, of whom 718 were listed as male and 638 as female, valued at £84159.39. Listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 1027 acres of land in St Catherine, 40 acres in St Andrew, 2372 acres in St Thomas-in-the-East, 1000 acres in St Mary, 715 acres in Westmoreland, 7838 acres in Clarendon, 1713 acres in St Dorothy, 6920 acres in St John and 396 acres in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, for a total of 22021 acres.

        Mandates/sources of authority

        Internal structures/genealogy

        Relationships area

        Related entity

        Beckford, Julines, ca. 1711-1764 (ca. 1711-1764)

        Identifier of related entity

        GB-2014-WSA-02939

        Category of relationship

        family

        Type of relationship

        Beckford, Julines, ca. 1711-1764 is the sibling of Beckford, William, 1709-1770

        Dates of relationship

        Description of relationship

        Related entity

        Beckford, Richard, 1712-1756 (1712-1756)

        Identifier of related entity

        GB-2014-WSA-02941

        Category of relationship

        family

        Type of relationship

        Beckford, Richard, 1712-1756 is the sibling of Beckford, William, 1709-1770

        Dates of relationship

        Description of relationship

        Related entity

        Hamilton, John, ca. 1726-1756 (ca. 1726-1756)

        Identifier of related entity

        GB-2014-WSA-08552

        Category of relationship

        family

        Type of relationship

        Hamilton, John, ca. 1726-1756 is the brother in law of Beckford, William, 1709-1770

        Dates of relationship

        Description of relationship

        Related entity

        Howard, George, 1718-1796 (1718-1796)

        Identifier of related entity

        GB-2014-WSA-09627

        Category of relationship

        family

        Type of relationship

        Howard, George, 1718-1796 is the brother in law of Beckford, William, 1709-1770

        Dates of relationship

        Description of relationship

        Access points area

        Subject access points

        Place access points

        Occupations

        Control area

        Authority record identifier

        GB-2014-WSA-02943

        Institution identifier

        GB 2014

        Rules and/or conventions used

        International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

        Status

        Final

        Level of detail

        Full

        Dates of creation, revision and deletion

        Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020
        Revised by Bethany Duck, Archive Assistant, September 2020

        Language(s)

          Script(s)

            Sources

            Supplementary information drawn from UCL's Legacies of British Slave-ownership database. Entry URL: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146640587

            Users should note that the information recorded here that is not to be found in the first two volumes of the Record of Old Westminsters and its first Supplement has been assembled from various published and manuscript sources by Hugh Edmund Pagan MA FSA, and all new resulting text is his copyright, © 2014.

            The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from the earliest times to 1927, Volumes 1 & 2, compiled by G. F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, London, 1928.

            Maintenance notes