WIGRAM, William (1780-1858).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1807 - 1812
1820 - 1826
1826 - 1830
1830 - 21 Feb. 1831
15 Aug. 1831 - 1832

Family and Education

b. 23 July 1780, 4th s. and bro. of Robert Wigram II* by 1st w., and bro. of Robert Wigram II*. educ. at ‘a good school at Holloway’. unm.

Offices Held

Director, London Assurance Co. 1806-9; director E.I. Co. 1809-54, dep. chairman 1822-3, Apr.-Oct. 1833, chairman 1823-4.

Lt. Epping Forest vol. cav. 1804, maj. 2 R.E.I. vols. 1809, lt.-col. 1812, 1820.

Biography

Wigram was described by his father in 1828 as ‘deservedly the son who is likely to enjoy the confidence of all my family’. After assisting in his father’s office at 3 Crosby Square, London, he became managing partner in Reid’s Brewery Company and a director of the East India Company. In 1807 he was elected for New Ross, a borough controlled by his distant kinsman Charles Tottenham, whose eldest son was married to Wigram’s sister. Sir Arthur Wellesley, however, noted him in his analysis of the Irish representation, as ‘brought in by Lord Ely’, Tottenham’s cousin, who had also returned Wigram’s father in 1806. Wellesley added to his note ‘supports government’, and the Whigs were ‘doubtful’ of his support in 1810. His only recorded votes were with government on the Scheldt question, 5 Mar., against the discharge of John Gale Jones, 16 Apr., and against parliamentary reform, 21 May 1810, with government on the Regency, 1 Jan. 1811, and against Canning’s motion on Catholic relief, 22 June 1812. He is not known to have spoken before 1820. Peel, who thought that he had ‘an engagement for the seat for years and not for Parliaments’ which would expire in 1814, wanted Wigram to come in for New Ross again in 1812, but he was replaced by Charles Leigh, whose family shared control of the borough with the Tottenhams.

Wigram, who subsequently settled at Bennington, Hertfordshire, and was for many years master of the Puckeridge foxhounds, died 8 Jan. 1858.

R. S. Wigram, Wigram Fam. 34, 64-65; Add. 40280, ff. 35, 41.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: J. M. Collinge

Notes