Pinckney Wilkinson

Pinckney Wilkinson (c. 1693–1784) was a British merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1784.

Wilkinson was a wealthy London merchant.^[1] He married Mary Thurloe (or Thurlow) at Lincoln's Inn chapel on 16 December 1735. She was an heiress and he received about £10,000 out of her fortune. In 1752, he purchased the estate Polestead or Westgate, Norfolk^[2] and built Burnham Westgate Hall in the 1750s using Matthew Brettingham, the Holkham estate architect.^[3] He and Mary had two daughters and a son and he retired from business when this son died in 1760. In the 1760s he held about £50,000 of Government stock, and about £6,000 of Bank stock^[1] and when his wife died in 1771 he held her property in trust.^[2] His daughter Anne married Thomas Pitt on 29 July 1771. It was said he gave her £30,000 down, and at least as much more in expectation, and Pitt referred to "the great inheritance’ his wife brought".^[1] Wilkinson's second daughter Mary married John Smith without her parents’ consent.^[2]

At the 1774 general election Wilkinson was returned by his son-in-law Pitt, who stood himself, as Member of Parliament for Old Sarum. They were returned again in 1780. Wilkinson voted with the Opposition, and apparently never spoke in Parliament.^[1] He suffered a stroke in May 1782 and was incapacitated for his last two years in parliament.^[4]

Wilkinson died on 26 February 1784 aged 90.^[1] His will became a case in Chancery mainly because the Smith's had been left out of it. There were also considerable complications as to which property was his and which that of his wife.^[2] The Smith's son Sidney became a distinguished admiral.^[5]

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