Family and Education

bap. 24 June 1697, 1st s. of Charles Walcot of Walcot (e. bro. of Humphrey Walcot) by his 2nd w. Anne, 4th da. of James Brydges, 8th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, sis. of James Brydges, M.P., 1st Duke of Chandos. educ. Magdalen, Oxf. 1715. m. 15 May 1732, Mary, da. of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Bt., M.P., of West Wycombe, Bucks., 2s. suc. fa. 1726.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1727 John Walcot rounded off his estates by purchasing the manor of Bishop’s Castle from his uncle, the Duke of Chandos, for £7,000,1 thus acquiring the chief interest in that borough. With an income of £3,000 a year, burdened with a debt of £22,000, he stood for the county against Chandos’s advice to wait till he had paid off the debt.2 Returned as a Tory, he voted against the Government.

Though Walcot did not stand again he continued to support his interest at Bishop’s Castle, plunging deeper into debt. By 1742 he owed over £33,000 and was forced to procure a private Act of Parliament to raise money on his wife’s portion.3 Before the election of 1747 he borrowed £8,500 on mortgage from his banker, Samuel Child, who was standing for Bishop’s Castle. After a close contest in 1753 it was said that if his candidate, Dashwood King, failed to send him a remittance, Walcot ‘would have done asking votes in Bishop’s Castle’.4 The end came in 1761, when his debts had risen to over £48,000. He was forced to conceal himself from his creditors, leaving his son and lawyer to sell his property to Lord Clive for the vastly inflated price of £92,000.5

He died in 1765.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: J. B. Lawson

Notes

• 1. Chandos to Walcot, 3 Apr. 1727, Walcot mss, Salop RO.
• 2. Gent. Mag. 1732, p. 776; Walcot mss; Chandos to Walcot, 17 July 1727, Chandos letter bks.
• 3. 15 16 Geo. 11, c.31; J. R. Burton, Hist. Walcot Fam. 85.
• 4. Walcot mss; S. Griffiths to Corbyn Morris, 27 Feb. 1753, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.
• 5. Account of Abraham Jones, 14 May 1764, Walcot mss.