Sunday, 13 October 2013
290 William Mackinnon
Constituency : Dunwich 1819-20, Lymington 1831-46 (Tory) 1846-52 1835- 52 Rye 1853-65
William was an aristocratic Scotsman ; though born in Kent he was 33rd chief of the Clan Mackinnon. He was educated at Cambridge. He had an intermittent parliamentary career beginning at Dunwich as a Tory when he was 30. He was unsuccessful at St Ives in 1826 and Boroughbridge in 1830. He got in at Lymington in 1831 with the support of Peel but lost in 1832 over his opposition to parliamentary reform. Disraeli described him as "an ass". In 1835 he was appointed a Colonisation Commissioner for Australia and was touted as a potential Governor for South Australia. He became a Peelite and after losing Lymington in 1852, came back in for Rye when his son was unseated on petition.William had a keen interest in animal welfare and chaired the RSPCA's AGM in 1858. He was a director of the Elan Valley Railway. He was an active MP prmoting measures on patents, smoke abatement , rural policing and turnpike trusts.
William was something of a polymath , a Fellow of the Royal Society who submitted a paper on the properties of limestone, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the publisher of books on economics , history and politics.
William was keen on becoming a peer and advertised his suitability to both Palmerston and Russell ( after he stepped down as an MP in favour of his son Lauchlan in 1865 ) but neither obliged. His son William became estranged from the party as a result.
He died in 1870 aged 84*
* Some sources give a later birthdate making him 80.
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