William Innes (1719–1795) was a British merchant and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1774 to 1775. Innes was the son of Alexander Innes of Cathlaw, West Lothian, and his wife Johanna Ainslie, daughter of Alexander Ainslie, merchant of Edinburgh, and was born on 29 July 1719. His father was a banker and merchant of Edinburgh and in 1749 Innes was a merchant in London, trading with the West Indies. He married Ann Wintle on 19 May 1753. At the

1774 Events January–March * January 21 – Mustafa III, List of Ottoman Sultans, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies and is succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid I. * January 27 ** An angry crowd in Boston, Massachusetts seizes, tars, and f ...

Innes was elected in a contest as

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 ...

for

Ilchester Ilchester is a village and civil parish, situated on the River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. Originally a Roman town, and later a market town, Ilchester has a rich medieval history and was a notable ...

on the interest of Thomas Lockyer. He is not recorded as voting in Parliament, but he made two speeches in his time on army estimates and the land tax. Ilchester had a history of corrupt practices and the defeated candidates petitioned against the result on grounds of bribery. The election was declared void a year after on 4 December 1775. Innes did not stand again. He died on 14 January 1795. Innes is listed in the UCL Legacies of British Slave-ownership database as the creditor of several slave-owners. Innes paid for a memorial to his nephew Joseph Innes, who died in Jamaica in 1779, in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

. Innes left money in his will to have his own memorial there also.

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Audio recording
relating to the memorial Innes had erected in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Lewisham, to his nephew Joseph Innes, also describing William Innes's life. {{DEFAULTSORT:Innes, William 1719 births 1795 deaths British MPs 1774–1780 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies