William Woodley MP

Profile & Legacies Summary

1728 - 1793

Biography

Slave-owner on St Kitts, where he inherited estates from his father (also William, husband of Ann Payne). Governor of Leeward Islands 1766-1771 and 1792-1793; Lieutenant-Governor of Antigua 1768-1788 and 1792-1793, MP for Great Bedwyn 1761-1766 and Marlborough 1780-1784. Father of William Woodley of Berbice (q.v.).

Will of William Woodley of [Mansfield Street] St Marylebone proved 11/05/1796. Under the will he left his unnamed estate (including explicitly the enslaved people) at Nichola Town in trust for his son William Woodley, subject to an annuity of £1000 p.a. on one moiety of it for his wife Frances, and the raising of portions totalling £23,000 for his sons John and Charles and his daughters Harriet and Maria (£6000 each apart from £5000 to Charles). His trustees included William Woodley of Eccles (q.v.).

Sources

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/woodley-william-1728-93 [accessed 03/02/2016] which gives 1791 as the beginning of his second term as Governor of the Leewards, and show him as having only two sons and three daughters.

PROB 11/1275/105.

Further Information

Absentee?

Transatlantic

Spouse

Frances Payne

Children

Frances; William; Harriet; John; Charles; Maria

Occupation

Colonial administrator

Associated Estates (3)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

SD - Association Start Date
SY - Association Start Year
EA - Earliest Known Association
ED - Association End Date
EY - Association End Year
LA - Latest Known Association

1760 [SY] - → Owner

Needsmust [ St Kitts | St Peter Basseterre ]

Inherited Needsmust and Box Tree in St Kitts from his father William Woodley (d. 1760)

- 1793 [EY] → Owner

Nichola Town Estate [ St Kitts | Christ Church Nichola Town ]

1767 [EA] - 1767 [LA] → Owner

Profit Est. [ St Kitts | St John Capesterre ]

Inheritor of the Profit estate from his uncle John Woodley of St James Westminster c. 1767. He reportedly sold the estate that same year.

Legacies Summary

Cultural (1)

Paintings

'The Woodley Family', painting by Johann Zoffany c. 1766, showing William Woodley MP (q.v.), his wife Frances Payne and their children Frances, William (q.v.), Hariot or Harriet and John. The...

Details