William Mainwaring (6 Oct 1735 – 28 February 1821) was the MP for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

from 1784 and chairman of the Middlesex and Westminster Quarter Sessions for a similar period.Jeremy Black;
George III: America's Last King
'; Yale University Press, 2006; He was the eldest son of Boulton Mainwaring of Isleworth, Middlesex and educated at Merchant Taylors' School (1744–52). He then entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1754 to study law and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1759. He was elected to serve as MP for Middlesex from 1784 to 1800. In the 1802 General election, he stood as candidate for Middlesex again was opposed by the radical

Francis Burdett Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (25 January 1770 – 23 January 1844) was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent (in advance of the Chartists) of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vo ...

. Mainwaring had previously resisted Burdett's calls for an inquiry into prison abuses, particularly at

Coldbath Fields Prison Coldbath Fields Prison, also formerly known as the Middlesex House of Correction and Clerkenwell Gaol and informally known as the Steel, was a prison in the Mount Pleasant area of Clerkenwell, London. Founded in the reign of James I (1603–1625 ...

. Mainwaring was defeated by Burdett but the election was declared void in 1804 and in the following contest William's son George Boulton Mainwaring was elected. The result was reversed in favour of Burdett in 1805 and the back in favour of Mainwaring Junior in 1806. Mainwaring did not contest the 1807 election and Burdett was not elected. He died in 1821, leaving one son.

References

1735 births 1821 deaths People from Isleworth People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Members of Lincoln's Inn Governors of the Hudson's Bay Company Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1801–1802 18th-century English people 19th-century English politicians {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub