William Ashhurst
Sir William Ashhurst or Ashurst (26 April 1647 – 12 January 1720) was an English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and Member of Parliament.
Biography
The son of Henry Ashurst[1] Ashurst was a member of the Corporation of London from 1678, and an alderman from 1687; he was knighted in 1687, and was Sheriff of London in 1691–1692 and Lord Mayor of London in 1693–1694.[2][3]
A Whig, he represented the City of London in Parliament for three separate periods between 1689 and 1710; he was generally regarded as one of the Country Whigs, but voted with the Court Whigs against the Disbanding Bill in 1698-9.[3]
He was a good friend of Edmund Calamy and was a nonconformist like the rest of his family, so unsurprisingly he was an active supporter of the Glorious Revolution and sat in the Convention Parliament (1689).[3]
He was one of the founding subscribers of the Bank of England, and a Director of the bank in 1697–1700, 1701–3, 1704–6, 1707–9 and 1711–14.[4][5]
Family
Sir William married Elizabeth the daughter of Robert Thompson.[6] When in the country they lived in a Queen Anne style red-brick mansion he built in the outer bailey of Hedingham Castle after his purchase of the castle in 1693.[2][7]
Notes
- ↑ Bailey 1885, p. 181.
- 1 2 Disraeli 1993, p. 223.
- 1 2 3 E.C.
- ↑ "The Charter of the corporation of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England" (PDF). 27 July 1694.
- ↑ Woodhead 1966, pp. 14–21.
- ↑ Disraeli 1993, p. 223 footnote 7.
- ↑ McCann 1997, p. 295.
References
- Bailey, John Eglington (1885). "Ashurst, Henry". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 181.
- Disraeli, Benjamin (1993). Gunn, John Alexander Wilson; Wiebe, Melvin George, eds. Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1848-1851. 5 (illustrated ed.). University of Toronto Press. p. 233. ISBN 0-8020-2927-2.
- E.C. "ashhurst-sir-william-1647-1720". The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved September 2011. Check date values in:
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(help) - McCann, John (1997). "The Dovecote at Hedingham Castle". Essex archaeology and history. 28: 295.
- Woodhead, J.R. (1966). "Abrahall - Ayray :Ashurst, William". The Rulers of London 1660-1689: A biographical record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London. pp. 14–21.
Further reading
- Walcott, Robert (1956). English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press.
- Hayton, David (1987). The Country Party in the House of Commons 1698-1699: a Forecast of the Opposition to a Standing Army?. Parliamentary History. 6. pp. 141–63.