William Beckford (politician)

William Beckford the Elder ( * December 19, 1709, † June 21, 1770 ) was an English politician. He was twice (1762 and 1769), Lord Mayor of London. He is the father of the writer and architect William Beckford, the eccentric building, Fonthill Abbey, built on the family estate of Fonthill, that was conversation in England in his time.

Life

He spent his youth in Jamaica, where his family had extensive, acquired by his grandfather Peter Beckford possessions. In 1723 he was sent for further training to England where he studied at the Westminster School.

1744 he acquired Fonthill Gifford near Salisbury in Wiltshire. He built from the Elizabethan possession, but in 1755 it was destroyed by a fire. Then he built Fonthill Splendens, a castle in the Palladian style. This was first partially and then completely demolished by his son when he Fonthill Abbey, built from 1795.

In 1752 he was Alderman in 1754 and Member of Parliament for the City of London. With his considerable wealth, he supported the party of William Pitt and the Whigs - and the interests of the Jamaican Zuckerrohrpfanzer. 1762 and again in 1769 he was elected mayor (Lord Mayor of London). On June 8, 1756, he had Mary Hamilton, a direct descendant of Mary Stuart, married in 1760 and was the only descendant of this union his son William Thomas Beckford of Fonthill in the world.

Beckford supported John Wilkes, for his release from prison he began, and he called on May 23, 1770 King George III. because of the prolapsed election irregularities publicly to dissolve parliament and dismiss his advisers. The king was very angry about this unseemly title, the Common Council of the City of London Corporation but so delighted that you built him a life-size statue on the pedestal of Beckford's words were engraved in gold ( see figure).

They got on the part of his political Tory opponent over his broad colonial accent and his crude expression, funny, gave him nicknames such as " William Hurricane" or " Rumford Sugarcane ", but could it (or a it represents wealth) do not fail to respect.

At his death he left behind a cash assets of over one million pounds sterling (about £ 110 million by today's purchasing power ), extensive possessions, a legitimate heir and six illegitimate offspring.