WOLLASTON, William (1693-1757), of Finborough, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

29 Jan. 1733 - 1741

Family and Education

b. 26 Apr. 1693, 2nd s. of Rev. William Wollaston of Shenton, Leics. and Finborough, Suff. by Catherine, da. and coh. of Nicholas Charlton, citizen and draper of London. educ. Sidney Sussex, Camb. 1710; King’s, Camb. 1710; I. Temple 1709, called 1715. m. 6 Apr. 1728, Elizabeth, da. of John Francis Fauquier of Rich’s Court, Lime St., London, dep. master of the mint and gov. of the Bank of England, 5s. 3da. suc. bro. Charlton at Finborough 1729.

Offices Held

Biography

Wollaston was descended from a wealthy Elizabethan wool merchant, whose son bought the manor of Finborough for £10,000 in 1656.1 His father, the author of The Religion of Nature, was left the family estates, including Shenton in Leicestershire, by a first cousin once removed. Returned unopposed at a by-election for Ipswich, for which he was re-elected after a contest in 1734, he voted with the Government. He became a trustee of the Georgia Society in March 1734, but when a petition for a parliamentary grant for the colony came before the House in February 1739, he unexpectedly rose from his seat and left.2 He voted with the Government on the Spanish convention in that year, was absent from the division on the place bill in 1740, did not stand again, and died 20 June 1757.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Copinger, Suff. Manors, vi. 173.
  • 2. HMC Egmont Diary, i. 66, 69; iii. 28.