Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet (born William Johnstone; October 1729 – 30 May 1805) was a Scottish lawyer,
Whig politician and landowner who sat in the
British House of Commons between 1768 and 1805. One of the wealthiest Britons during his lifetime, he invested in the construction of several prominent buildings in Britain, including the
Pulteney Bridge and other properties in
Bath, Somerset
Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...
, several beachfront residences in
Weymouth, Dorset and roads in Scotland. Pulteney was also a patron of architect
Robert Adam and civil engineer
Thomas Telford. He also owned
slave plantations in
British America
British America collectively refers to various British colonization of the Americas, colonies of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and its predecessors states in the Americas prior to the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1 ...
.
Early life
William Johnstone, as he was born, was the second son of
Sir James Johnstone, 3rd Baronet of Wester Hall,
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...
, and his wife Barbara Murray, the oldest sister of the literary patron
Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank.
His older brother was the soldier and politician
Sir James Johnstone, 4th Baronet. His older sister was
Margaret
Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
, later Lady Ogilvy, a Jacobite. His younger brothers included the politician and naval officer
George Johnstone and the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
official
John Johnstone.
Alexander Murray of Elibank, also a
Jacobite, was his uncle.
He studied law, became a member of the
Faculty of Advocates in 1751, and went on to become an eminent advocate. He lived in Edinburgh and associated with several major figures of the country's learned society, including philosopher and historian
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
, political philosopher and economist
Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...
, and architect
Robert Adam. He was a brother of Commodore
George Johnstone and first cousin of
Patrick Ferguson.
Marriage and name change
On 10 November 1760, he married heiress Frances Pulteney. Frances was the third daughter of MP and government official
Daniel Pulteney and first cousin once removed of
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, (22 March 16847 July 1764) was an English Whigs (British political party), Whig politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain, British House of Commons from 1707 to 1742 when he was r ...
. She inherited William’s substantial fortune and estates close to
Bath in
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
after his death in 1764 and that of his
younger brother and heir in 1767. On inheriting, Johnstone changed his name in 1767 to Pulteney. Simultaneously, his daughter’s name was also changed from Henrietta Laura Johnstone to
Henrietta Laura Pulteney.
Pulteney Bridge
At that time Bath was expanding, but the Pulteneys' rural
Bathwick estate was separated from the city by the
River Avon, and with no bridge in place the only means of crossing the river was via a small ferry. They decided a bridge needed to be built, and Pulteney turned to his friend and fellow countryman, architect Robert Adam. Adam was influenced by his travels to
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
and proposed a bridge incorporating shops along both sides. This was completed in 1773, but the Pulteneys' original plans for Bath's expansion did not take effect until 1788 when Bath architect
Thomas Baldwin started to create a new estate. As well as the bridge bearing their name, the Pulteneys' involvement is recalled by
Great Pulteney Street in Bathwick, reputed to be the longest boulevard of its kind in Europe, while
Henrietta Street was named after their daughter.
Parliamentarian
Pulteney represented
Cromarty and later
Shrewsbury, where he usually resided, in seven successive Parliaments. He first but unsuccessfully contested the Shrewsbury seat in 1768, but subsequently won the seat for Cromarty (losing this to
Cosmo Gordon in 1774). In 1774, he again contested Shrewsbury, and although he was defeated, he was returned on petition the following March (and retained the seat until his death in May 1805).
On 1 June 1782, his wife Frances died, leaving him her fortune.
Land speculation in North America
In July 1770
Alexander Fordyce collaborated with two planters John and William Macintosh on
Grenada
Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...
and borrowed 240,000 guilders in bearer bonds from
Hope & Co. Also William Pulteney, Samuel Hoare (1716–1796) and
John Harman were involved. Pulteney invested in plantations in the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
and in land what is today western
New York state
New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
. The settlements of
Bath,
Pulteney,
Henrietta and
Caledonia are evidence of his speculation at the end of the 18th century, through '
The Pulteney Association' an agency run by his agent Charles Williamson.
Patron of Thomas Telford
In 1783, Pulteney began working with
Thomas Telford, later the most eminent civil engineer of his day. When Pulteney first met him, Telford was a young stonemason from the same parish of
Westerkirk in
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...
, who had travelled to London to seek work. In 1787, Pulteney commissioned Telford to supervise restoration works at
Shrewsbury Castle, following
Robert Adam's designs
[Gareth Williams, The Hidden Hand of Genius; Robert Adam & The Pulteney Estate in Shropshire, in Georgian Group Journal vol. XXIV pp.65-80] and helped his appointment as Surveyor of Public Works for
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
.
Later, as Governor of the British Fisheries Society, Pulteney appointed Telford to design the world’s then-largest
herring fishing port, at
Wick in
Caithness. The village was named
Pulteneytown and is the location of the ''
Old Pulteney'' whisky distillery.
Pulteney was also influential in Telford's 1801 appointment to devise a master plan to improve communications in the
Highlands of Scotland, a massive project that was to last 20 years.
Pulteney also took a lively interest in many other engineering projects, including that of
Bell Rock lighthouse, supporting a bill in 1803.
Legacy
He succeeded to the Johnstone baronetcy in 1794 on the death of his elder brother James Johnstone. He was thus titled 5th Baronet Pulteney, having declined several offers of a peerage during his parliamentary career.
In 1804 Pulteney married his second wife, Margaret, widow of
Andrew Stuart and daughter of Sir William Stirling. The marriage did not last long: Pulteney died
intestate at
Bath House in
Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...
, London, on 30 May 1805, and was buried at
Westminster Abbey.
His daughter,
(Henrietta) Laura, was created 1st Baroness of Bath on 26 July 1792 and 1st Countess of Bath on 26 October 1803. In 1794, she had married her father's first cousin
Sir James Murray, who had taken the name Murray-Pulteney. She died on 14 July 1808 without bearing children and her titles became extinct.
In the towns of
Hammondsport and
Bath, New York, there are village squares and streets named after Pulteney.
[ Hakes, ''Landmarks of Steuben County, New York '',1896, pp. 51-52 55 61-62, 343, 370,-371, etc ]
References
Sources
*
External links
*
Sir William Johnstone Pulteney (sic) and the Scottish Origins of Western New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulteney, Sir William, 5th Baronet
1729 births
1805 deaths
Nobility from Dumfries and Galloway
Members of the Faculty of Advocates
People of the Scottish Enlightenment
Johnstone baronets
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies
British MPs 1768–1774
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1774–1780
British MPs 1780–1784
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
UK MPs 1802–1806
Scottish landowners
Scottish slave owners