William Tooke

William Tooke signed 'for Richard Oliver, Self and William Smith' the 1783 address to George III of the planters in the West India islands residing in Great Britain and the merchants trading to those islands. He was co-owner with Richard Oliver and William Smith of the Diamond estate in Grenada. He was the benefactor of the radical MP John Horne Tooke, who took the additional name Tooke in his honour in 1782 and was tried for treason in 1794. The entry for John Horne Tooke in the ODNB makes no reference to William Tooke's slave-property.

1. Will of William Tooke proved 12/10/1802. In the will he said that he had formerly owned one-third of the Diamond estate with the late Richard Oliver decd. and William Smith decd. and now owned it in partnership with Thomas Oliver [q.v., under Thomas Oliver of London] and George Griffin: he left his share in the estate to his nephew William Tooke Harwood. Earlier in the will he left monetary legacies of £5000 each to 7 nieces, nephews and grand-nephews, and £500 to his friend John Horne Tooke, whom he also forgave £750 secured on the latter's estate at Wimbledon. John Baseley, the son of Margaret and John Green Baseley of Norwich and Tooke's great-nephew and residuary heir, also changed his name to add 'Tooke' in the same year. [According to the ODNB John Horne Tooke contested the will on the basis that he had agreed a split of William Tooke's estate].

London Gazette 12422 11/03/1783 p. 2; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/horne-tooke-john-1736-1812 [accessed 15/12/2015]; Davis, Michael T. 2009 "Tooke, John Horne [formerly John Horne] (1736–1812), radical and philologist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 3 Jul. 2019. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-27545.

1. PROB 11/1382/69; London Gazette 15524 16/10/1802 p. 1105.