Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet of Boynton, Yorkshire (March 1665 – 12 May 1724) was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

between 1689 and 1724. He was also a notable racehorse owner. Boynton Hall

Early life

Strickland was the son of Sir Thomas Strickland, 2nd Baronet and his wife Elizabeth Pile. He was educated at

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

. On 28 August 1684, he married Elizabeth Palmes, daughter and heiress of William Palmes of Lindley. He succeeded to the baronetcy and to

Boynton Hall Boynton Hall is a country house in the village of Boynton near Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. Originally constructed in the late 16th century, the house has been remodelled several times. It i ...

, near Scarborough at the age of nineteen on his father's death in November 1684.

Career

In 1689, Strickland was returned as member of parliament for Malton, a Yorkshire

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act of 1832, which had a very small electo ...

controlled at that period by his father-in-law, who occupied its other seat himself. He was returned at Malton unopposed in seven elections until the 1708 general election when he decided to stand at

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and vacated his seat at Malton in favour of his son,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

. Strickland senior was elected at Yorkshire in a contest in 1708 but was defeated at the 1710 general election. After being out of Parliament for a few years he stood at Malton but was defeated at the 1715 general election. However he was returned as MP for

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest recor ...

at a by-election on 3 August 1716. In

1722 Events January–March * January 27 – Daniel Defoe's novel '' Moll Flanders'' is published anonymously in London. * February 10 – The Battle of Cape Lopez begins off of the coast of West Africa (and present-day Gabon), ...

he was returned unopposed at Malton but died after two years. Strickland sat as a Whig, and in the factional battles within that party at the turn of the century was a follower of

Lord Wharton Baron Wharton is a title in the Peerage of England, originally granted by letters patent to the heirs male of the 1st Baron, which was forfeited in 1729 when the last male-line heir was declared an outlaw. The Barony was erroneously revived in 1 ...

and a supporter of the Junto. Strickland was also

High Sheriff of Yorkshire The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere o ...

for 1698–99 and appointed Commissary-General of the Musters in 1720.

Racehorse owner

Strickland was an enthusiastic owner and breeder of racehorses, and one of his horses, the Acaster Turk, was Champion Sire in 1721. Strickland was a central character in one of early racing's greatest causes celebres, The Merlin Match. Many of the exact details, even the date and the correct names of the horses involved are unknown; almost all that is certain is that the match took place. The race was a head-to-head match at Newmarket between Strickland's horse, called Merlin (or possibly Old Merlin or Ancaster Merlin or Little Merlin) and a horse belonging to Tregonwell Frampton the Royal trainer; it was seen as being a symbolic race between the champions of North and South, or of the Provinces and the racing establishment, and attracted widespread interest and heavy betting. According to the accepted legend, shortly before the race was due to take place Strickland's groom, one Hesseltine, was approached by Frampton's groom, who proposed a secret trial of the horses over the full distance, to give them both inside information and ensure they could bet wisely. Hesseltine agreed and the trial was run, Merlin winning narrowly; but Frampton and Strickland each had instructed their groom to double-cross the other by secretly adding extra weight to their own horse, and both therefore believed they would win the race easily! In the event Merlin won the race much as he had won the trial, as recorded in a popular ballad of the time:

''And now, Little Merlin has won the day,
And all for his master's gain
Guarded him to stable
again, again
Guarded him to stable again,
And as they rode through Newmarket,
Many curses on them did fall,
A curse light on these Yorkshire knights,
And their horses and riders
and all, and all,
and their horses and riders and all.''

Huge sums were won and lost, with many of those who had bet on Frampton's horse ruined. As a result, the law was soon afterwards changed to make it legally impossible to recover more than £10 of a gambling debt.

Death

Strickland died in May 1724 from a fall at a fox hunt. His son

, who succeeded him in the baronetcy, was the only one of his children who survived to adulthood.

References

*J Foster, ''Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire'' (1874) *G R Park, ''The Parliamentary Representation of Yorkshire'' (1886) *R Rodrigo, ''The Racing Game'' (London: The Sportsman's Book Club, 1960) *Robert Walcott, "English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956) {{DEFAULTSORT:Strickland, William 1665 births 1724 deaths Strickland, Sir William, 3rd Baronet Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire British MPs 1707–1708 British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 English landowners English MPs 1689–1690 English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698 English MPs 1701 English MPs 1701–1702 English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 Members of the Parliament of England for constituencies in Yorkshire High sheriffs of Yorkshire Accidental deaths in the United Kingdom