Family and Education

1st s. of William Ockenden of St. Bennet Gracechurch, London by Mary, da. of Elias Simes of St. Clement Danes, London. unm. suc. fa. 1721.1

Offices Held

Clerk of the Council to the Prince of Wales 1749-51.

Biography

William Ockenden, who had lived in Ireland,2 inherited property in 1739 and 1741 from his maternal uncles Elias Simes of Hurley, Berks. and John Simes of Chiswick.3 A maker of copper and brass utensils at Temple Mills,4 across the river from Marlow, he acquired a political interest in that borough through his workmen, who were customers of the Marlow tradesmen.5 He was returned on this interest, by two votes only, in December 1744 at a by-election caused by the death of his neighbour in Bisham, Sir Thomas Hoby, a petition against him being abandoned after a hearing of three days. Voting against the Administration on the Hanoverians in 1746, he was classed as Opposition in 1747, when he was re-elected without a contest. Joining the Prince of Wales’s party, he received an appointment in his household in 1749. Put down for ‘some place’ in the Ordnance in the next reign, he was one of the 2nd Lord Egmont’s associates at the time of Frederick’s death in 1751.6 He did not stand in 1754, when he was approached by Newcastle to give his support to the administration candidates.7 At his death, 2 July 1761, he was the owner of mills in Weybridge.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. PCC Admons. Dec. 1721 and Dec. 1752.
• 2. PCC 261 Cheslyn.
• 3. PCC 202 Henchman and 107 Spurway; CJ, xxiv. 709-10.
• 4. VCH Berks. i. 382.
• 5. See GREAT MARLOW.
• 6. Add. 47073.
• 7. Add. 32995, f. 126.