FORESTER, William (1690-1758), of Dothill Park, Salop

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1715 - 1722
1734 - 1741
1754 - 12 Nov. 1758

Family and Education

b. 1690, 1st s. of Sir William Forester, K.B., M.P., of Dothill by Lady Margaret Cecil, da. of James, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. m. 1714, Catherine, da. and h. of William Brooke of Clerkenwell, 3s. 3da. suc. fa. Feb. 1718.

Offices Held

Biography

Thirteen Foresters1 sat for Wenlock between 1529 and 1885 (not counting relatives returned by them), and no Forester in the 18th century sat for any other constituency. Wenlock, without being a pocket borough, was identified with the Forester family, as they were with it; and they have continued to this day to supply mayors to the borough.

William Forester’s parliamentary career lies for the most part outside our period. He was a strong Whig: one of those ‘I have under my care’, wrote Lord Powis to the Duke of Newcastle in October 1754.2 No vote or speech of Forester’s is recorded in the Parliament of 1754.  He died 12 Nov. 1758.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

  • 1. G. T. O. Bridgeman, ‘Some Account of the Family of Forester’, Trans. Shropshire Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), iii. 172; Namier, Structure, 235-298.
  • 2. Add. 32737, ff. 33-34.