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BOSCAWEN, William Augustus Spencer (1750-1828), of Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, Mdx.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 7 Jan. 1750, o.s. of Hon. John Boscawen† by Thomasine, da. of Robert Surman, merchant, of Valentine House, Essex. m. 17 July 1805, Mary Ann Hughes of St. Marylebone, Mdx., 2s. 2da. suc. fa. 1767.
Offices Held
Ensign 2 Ft. Gds. 1769, lt. and capt. 1775, capt. and lt.-col. 1781, ret. 1790.
Commr. Salt Office 1792-8.
Biography
Col. Boscawen was again returned in 1790 on the interest of his first cousin George, 3rd Viscount Falmouth, who in 1787 and 1789 had applied to Pitt to have him made aide-de-camp to the King, and in 1788 for him to succeed to the government of Fort George and Fort Augustus.1 Nothing came of these applications or of his own and in 1790 he retired from the army. On 10 Jan. he had written to Pitt, requesting a place in the Mint as a reward for his parliamentary support.2 Having, as before, given a silent support to government, and been listed hostile to the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in April 1791, he was found a place early in 1792, as a salt tax commissioner at £500 p.a., by an arrangement whereby he gave up his seat. On the death of Hugh Boscawen† in September 1795, Lord Falmouth wrote to Pitt asking for his cousin to succeed him as knight marshal of the Household, explaining that the promised salary of £500 p.a. had simply not materialized and that this new appointment would remedy the situation; but Boscawen remained a salt commissioner only.3 In April 1796 he had an unseemly wrangle in the newspaper with John Monkton Hale, a borough monger, whom he accused of assuming the name of Boscawen for his own purposes in advertising his services.4 He died 13 June 1828.
