Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 1st Baronet (1722–1773) was an English politician. He served as a member of Parliament from Middlesex from 1747 to 1768. He was the first of the

Proctor-Beauchamp baronets The Beauchamp-Proctor, later Proctor-Beauchamp Baronetcy, of Langley Park in the County of Norfolk, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 20 February 1745 for the twenty-two-year-old William Beauchamp-Proctor, subsequ ...

Personal life

He was born William Beauchamp, the oldest son of Thomas Beauchamp (died 1724) and Anne Proctor, in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

. He was educated at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

. Around 1744–5 he inherited

Langley Hall Langley Hall is a red-brick building in the Palladian style, formerly a country house but now a private school, located near Loddon, Norfolk, England. It is a grade I listed building. The house was built in the Palladian style of nearby Holkham ...

from his maternal uncle George Proctor and assumed the name "Beauchamp-Proctor" in accordance with his uncle's will. He married his cousin Jane Tower (1724–1761) in 1746; they had at least five children: Anne Proctor Bacon (1749–1813), Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor, 2nd Bt. (1756–1826), Frances Proctor Constance (b. 1757), George Proctor (b. 1759), and Mary Proctor (died 1755). After his first wife's death, he married Laeticia Johnson on 13 May 1762 and they had at least five additional children: Letitia (1763–1780), Henrietta (1764, died an infant), William Henry (1769–1806), Christopher (born 1771), and Sidney (1774, died young). Laeticia Johnson's sister and co-heiress Agneta married, also in 1762,

Charles Yorke Charles Yorke Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 December 172220 January 1770) was briefly Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. ...

, then Attorney-General. As of 1753, Beauchamp-Proctor is listed as a vice president of the London Smallpox Hospital; by 1760 he is listed as vice president and governor for life. In 1760 he is listed as a vice president and governor of

St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was founded in London in 1751 for the treatment of incurable pauper lunatics by a group of philanthropic apothecaries and others. It was the second public institution in London created to look after mentally ill pe ...

. In 1772 he was listed as a vice president and governor of the "Lying-in Charity for Delivering Poor Married Women at Their Own Habitations", a charity of which the Prince of Wales

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

was the honorary president. A painting by

John Wootton John Wootton (c.1686– 13 November 1764)Deuchar, S. (2003). "Wootton, John". Grove Art Online. was an English painter of sporting subjects, battle scenes and landscapes, and illustrator. Life Born in Snitterfield, Warwickshire (near Stratfo ...

shows Beauchamp-Proctor with others with Langley Hall in the distance. He died on 13 September 1773 at Langley Hall and was buried in Tottenham.

Political career

Beauchamp-Proctor was created a baronet on 20 February 1745. In 1747, he won election to Parliament and was re-elected without opposition in 1754. He was listed in 1754 as a supporter of the Whig administration. In 1761 he was listed as a supporter of Tory Lord Bute. He was made a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

23 March 1761. Rockingham considered him a Whig in 1766. He was defeated at the

1768 British general election The 1768 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election took plac ...

by radical

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...

and again in a by-election in December 1768 by Wilkes' lawyer

John Glynn John Glynn Serjeant-at-law of Glynn (1722–1779) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1779. Glynn was born to a family of Cornish gentry. He inherited his father's estate at Glynn in the parish of ...

. The by-election reputedly cost Beauchamp-Proctor ten thousand pounds and was marred by violence and riots.https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/beauchamp-proctor-sir-william-1722-73 "Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 1st Bt.", History of Parliament Online

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauchamp-Proctor, William 1722 births 1773 deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford People from Tottenham People from Loddon Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1761–1768