William Praed

Profile & Legacies Summary

1747 - 1833

Biography

Banker, of William Praed & Co., and slave-owner in Jamaica, part-owner of the Waterhouse and Tunbridge estates in Jamaica from c. 1792 until c.1817. MP for St Ives for twenty years and then more briefly for Banbury. The 'property' in Jamaica, including enslaved people, came to him through his wife Elizabeth Tyringham Praed, who was co-heir with her sister Sarah Backwell (q.v.) of their uncle James Gibbon (q.v.).

Praed's rebuilding of Tyringham, undertaken by John Soane, was intended to be funded in part by the sale of Praed's Jamaica property, the sale of which fell through in 1807. Soane was repaid the outstanding amount of £13,000 only in 1817.

Sources

The Praed banking firm was a predecessor of Lloyds: [accessed 19/11/2020]; https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/praed-william-1747-1833;

Gillian Darley, John Soane: an Accidental Romantic (Yale, 1999) pp. 106-112.

Further Information

Absentee?

British/Irish

Spouse

Elizabeth Tyringham Backwell

Occupation

Banker

Associated Estates (4)

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

1792 [EA] - 1801 [LA] → Joint owner

Tunbridge [ Jamaica | St Andrew ]

1792 [EA] - 1801 [LA] → Joint owner

Waterhouse Estate [ Jamaica | St Andrew ]

1809 [EA] - 1817 [LA] → Owner

Waterhouse Estate [ Jamaica | St Andrew ]

1819 [EA] - → Not known

Waterhouse Farm Pen [ Jamaica | St Andrew ]

Possibly former owner of this pen. Certainly he had previously owned most of this group of enslaved people.

Legacies Summary

Commercial (2)

Senior partner

Praed Mackworth
Banker

Details

Chairman

Grand Junction Canal
Canal Company

Details

Physical (2)

Gardens

Tyringham, Bucks

Details

description →

Landscaping designed by Humphry Repton before 1794. ‘Gazetteer compiled with John Phibbs’ in Stephen Daniels, Humphry Repton, Landscape Gardening and the Geography of Georgian England (London:...

Country house

Tyringham Hall [Built]

Details

description →

Grade I country house rebuilt by Sir John Soane for William Praed c.1793-1797. Praed's rebuilding of Tyringham was intended to be funded in part by the sale of Praed's Jamaica property, the sale of...