Joseph Gulston (1674-1766) was a British merchant and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. He was the son of Joseph Gulston, a London merchant trading in Lisbon. He became a merchant himself and a director of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

from 1742 to 1760. He was elected to Parliament for

Tregony Tregony ( kw, Trerigoni), sometimes in the past Tregoney, is a village and former civil parishes in England, civil parish, now in the parish of Tregony with Cuby, in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies on the River Fal. In the village th ...

1737-1741 and elected for

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

in 1741, 1747, 1754, and 1761. Together with his fellow MP

Thomas Calcraft Thomas Calcraft (1738–1783) was an English politician and Lieutenant-Colonel. He was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Poole (UK Parliament constituency), Poole from 1761 to 1774. Life He was born in Ancaster ...

, he is credited with financing Poole Guildhall.

He married his wife, Mericas da Silva, in secret. She was the daughter of a Portuguese merchant named Sylva and had come to London with the family on their return. Joseph and Mericas's son,

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, was born under the circumstances which form the groundwork of

Clementina Black Clementina Maria Black (27 July 1853 – 19 December 1922) was an English writer, feminist and pioneering trade unionist, closely connected with Marxist and Fabian socialists. She worked for women's rights at work and for women's suffrage. Ear ...

's novel ''Mericas''. The marriage was not acknowledged for many years, principally owing to the elder Joseph Gulston's dread of his sister, and for some time his children, two sons and two daughters, were brought up in the strictest concealment. Gulston died 16 August 1766 and his wife 17 November 1799, aged 84. Both were buried in Ealing Church. His son

followed him as MP for Poole and inherited his estates, including Ealing Grove in Middlesex, which he would later rebuild.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulston, Joseph 1674 births 1766 deaths Politicians from London Businesspeople from London Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1761–1768 People from Ealing