Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/84

Beckford  [Hutchins's Dorset, iii.; Retrospective Review, iii. 231; Watt's Biblioth. Brit. 91w.; Apperley on the Horse; Beatson's Parl. Register, ii. 172.]

 BECKFORD, WILLIAM (1709–1770), alderman and twice lord mayor of London, was born in Jamaica, where he was baptized on 19 Dec. 1709. His father, the Hon. Peter Beckford, was at the time speaker of the assembly in that colony; his mother, Bathshua, being the daughter of Colonel Julines Herring, also of Jamaica. The Beckfords were descended from a family long established in Gloucestershire. In that county the parish of Beckford still marks the site of the ancient manor of the same name, which, according to Domesday Book, had been terra regis in the time of the Confessor. One noted ancestor. Sir William Beckford, was among the principal adherents of Richard III. As such he loyally followed that monarch to the field of Bosworth, where he was probably killed. After passing through many vicissitudes, the family had its fortunes restored about the middle of the seventeenth century by Peter Beckford, the alderman's great-grandfather, who, quitting England in search of advancement, settled down in Jamaica, and there rose to considerable wealth as a planter. His son, Colonel Peter Beckford, acquired so much distinction among the colonists during the reign of Charles II that he was nominated president of the council, being eventually, under William III, appointed lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of the island. His immense property having on his death, 3 April 1710, been inherited by his eldest son and namesake (the alderman's father already mentioned), passed on the latter's demise, 23 Sept. 1735, to the fourth Peter Beckford of Jamaica. That eldest son dying unmarried, however, but little more than a year afterwards, the whole inheritance came of right into the possession of his younger brother William.

As a boy of fourteen William Beckford, in 1723, had first arrived in England from Jamaica. Being sent here expressly to be educated, he was placed under the care of the Rev. Robert Freind, then the able headmaster of Westminster School, by whom he was often spoken of afterwards in later life as one of the best scholars that the school had ever had. At Westminster he secured the lasting friendship of Lord Mansfield. Entering public life on the death of his elder brother as an enormously rich West Indian planter, he soon found his onward path made clear before him in many directions. He expanded his operations as a merchant in London. He acquired and adorned a palatial country residence in Wiltshire. He was advanced to the magistracy and entered parliament. According to Nicoll's quarto 'History of the Ironmongers' (p. 453) he was admitted in 1752 to the freedom and livery of that company. According to Noorthouck's quarto 'History of London' (p. 374) he was in that same year on 24 June elected alderman of Billingsgate ward, in succession to Thomas Winterbottom, the then lord mayor, who had died on 4 June 1752. In the following year (1753) Beckford served the office of master of the Ironmongers' company. In the ensuing spring he was returned simultaneously during the course of the general election as M.P. for the city of London and as M.P. for Petersfield, the latter on 19 April, the former on 7 May. Deciding, almost as a matter of course, that he would sit for London, he sent, in munificent evidence of his goodwill, as a solatium to his other constituents, 400l. to pave the streets of Petersfield. In 1755 he was installed in the office of sheriff of the city of London, in association with the other sheriff, Ive Whitbread, the lord mayor of that year being Slingsby Bethell, alderman of Walbrook, presumably an ancestor of Lord Westbury. On 4 April 1761 Beckford was re-elected M.P. for the city of London. Before the close of the following year he became lord mayor. Though he was in a manner entitled by rotation to that office, it was known that a strong party were preparing to oppose him. Beckford, on 28 Oct. 1762, attended the court of aldermen and desired leave to resign his gown as alderman. His resolute course in thus acting had its due effect. His request was postponed until the following day, when (29 Oct. 1762) he was elected lord mayor, eighteen votes being given for him and but one for Alderman Bridger, the rival candidate. This mayoralty was memorable for its luxurious character. Though extremely moderate in his own diet, Beckford's public banquets were of the most sumptuous description. Four of them in particular were long afterwards referred to by gourmets as probably more elaborate than any since the days of Henry VIII. His political savings and doings during this year were remarkable in a different way. John Wilkes's name and his were then and long afterwards intimately associated. Wilkes was at the time a London alderman and M.P. for Aylesbury. On 23 April 1763 No. 45 of the 'North Briton' was published, in which the king was openly charged with uttering falsehood in his royal speech. On the 26th general warrants were issued by Lord Halifax for the apprehension of its authors, printers,