Constituency : Montrose Burghs 1855-85
William was a large landowner from Dundee and a partner in the family textiles business. His father had been a leading opponent of the Corn Laws and there was a tradition of philanthropy in the family. He seconded a motion at the 1858 meeting of mainstream Liberals supporting a cautious policy of "improvement of our institutions". He was not hostile to Palmerston referring to the opposition period of 1858-9 as "seats of penitence.. until ... they had time ... to make up their minds to be liberal in deeds as well as in words".
Gladstone promoted him to the frontbench in his first ministry. William was Secretary to the Admiralty from 1868-71 then Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1871-73. He had to defend the Queen and the Civil List at a public meeting in Arbroath in 1871. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1873 but dropped from the government and he didn't return to office in 1880. He was chairman for a day of the 1883 Co-Operative Congress.
He retired in 1885 but let it be known he supported the Liberal Unionist cause the following year. His son George was an active Unionist challenging Winston Churchill in the 1908 Dundee by-election and becoming President of the Scottish Unionist Association in 1920.
William was a noted travel writer. In America And the Americans (1855) he observed that American presidential victors tended to be the ones with the fewst enemies rather than the most talented. He was appalled by the nature of presidential campaigns but praised America's " honest and substantial citizens".
William died in 1890 after a long illness.
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