William Wilshere (1754–1824)[1] of The Frythe was an English lawyer and banker. He was an attorney in Hitchin,[2] and founded a bank there in 1789.[3]

Life

He was born 6 September 1754,[4] the son of William Wilshere (died 1798).[1] He became attorney to Samuel Whitbread in 1780, beginning a long and close relationship as adviser and agent, which also saw him as a financial partner in the Whitbread brewery from 1801, when others including the banker Sir Benjamin Hobhouse were brought into the company.[5][6]

At the period of the French Revolution Wilshere was sufficiently concerned to fortify his house.[7] In 1806 Whitbread and Wilshere began a campaign for reform of the Poor Laws, and Wilshere provided Whitbread with material for a speech in the House of Commons on the topic on May of that year.[8] Also that year he purchased the manor Great Wymondley from Shute Barrington. The purchase brought with it the right to be cupbearer at royal coronations, and Wilshere carried out the office for the coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom. This was the last time the tradition was honoured.[9] Fulford speculates that this royal service may have damaged Wilshere's reputation among Whigs.[10]

Wilshere was a magistrate in both Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. He testified to an 1817 House of Lords committee on the Poor Laws that he found it necessary to give relief without regard to whether the recipients were deserving, to save life.[11]

Family

Wilshere died without surviving children on 2 September 1824. His estate passed to William Wilshere the future Member of Parliament, the son of his brother Thomas, whom he had adopted[1][4][12]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Bernard Burke (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison. p. 1529.
  2. ↑ Nigel E. Agar (2005). Behind the Plough: Agrarian Society in Nineteenth-century Hertfordshire. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-9542189-5-9.
  3. ↑ Allan Whitaker (2006). Brewers in Hertfordshire. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-9542189-7-3.
  4. 1 2 "List of burials in Welwyn churchyard, memorials within the church and names found only on the 1906 record of memorials, Surnames S-Z". Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Peter Mathias (1993). The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830. Gregg Revivals. pp. 327 and 301. ISBN 0751201502.
  6. ↑ Lesley Richmond; Alison Turton (1 January 1990). The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records. Manchester University Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-0-7190-3032-1.
  7. ↑ Hugh C. Prince (2008). Parks in Hertfordshire Since 1500. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-9542189-9-7.
  8. ↑ Roger Fulford (1967). Samuel Whitbread, 1764-1815: a study in opposition. Macmillan. pp. 176 and 179.
  9. ↑ Parishes: Great or Much Wymondley, in A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1912), pp. 181-185 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp181-185 [accessed 16 May 2015].
  10. ↑ Roger Fulford (1967). Samuel Whitbread, 1764-1815: a study in opposition. Macmillan. p. 95.
  11. ↑ Peter Dunkley (December 1982). The Crisis of the old Poor Law in England, 1795-1834: an interpretive essay. Garland Pub. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-8240-5153-2.
  12. ↑ "Death of William Wilshere, Esq". Hertford Mercury and Reformer. 16 November 1867. p. 3. Retrieved 21 May 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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