Lieut.-Col. Thomas Wildman

Eldest son of Thomas Wildman I of Bedford Sq. and Bacton Hall, Suffolk (q.v.), lawyer and consigliere to the Beckfords, and Sarah Hardinge. Educated Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1796 he inherited his father's estates in Britain and Jamaica, including Quebec estate of which Thomas Wildman I had obtained possession in 1790. He entered the 7th Light Dragoons, afterwards Hussars, as a cornet in 1808. During the Peninsular and Napoleonic Wars he fought at the retreat to Corunna and at Waterloo, where he was aide de camp to the Earl of Uxbridge at Quatre Bras and to the Marquess of Anglesey. Slightly wounded at Waterloo he transferred to the 2nd West India Regiment and then to the Regiment of Light Dragoons with the rank of Major in 1816. In the same year he married 15 year old Louisa Preisig (1801-1877), daughter of F. Preizig of Appenzal in Switzerland.

In 1817 or 1818 he bought Newstead Abbey Nottinghamshire from his friend Lord Byron (other sources suggest from Thomas Clawton) for £94,500 and spent a further £100,000 restoring the house. Retiring from the Army in 1832, he became Colonel of the Sherwood Rangers, Equerry to the Duke of Sussex, and provincial Grandmaster of the Freemasons for 35 years. In the 1851 census he was listed as living at Newstead Abbey with his wife, sister-in-law and 14 servants. There were no children born from the marriage. He left personalty of £12,000 (resworn from £14,000) on his death at Newstead Abbey in 1859.
 

The family background of involvement in the Beckford family's estates in Jamaica is given in Twickenham museum: Thomas Wildman [accessed 15/10/2014; revised 13 May 2024]; National Probate Calendar 1859; http://www.newsteadabbey.org.uk/ [accessed 15/10/2014].

Thomas Wildman, British Armorial Bindings, University of Toronto https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamp-owners/WIL003

The Morning Post, 26/11/1816.

Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 23/9/1859.

We are grateful to William Norton for his help compiling this entry.