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 Smiths had been left out of it. There were also considerable complications regarding which property was his and which that of his wife.[2] John and Mary Smith's son, Sidney, became a distinguished admiral.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "WILKINSON, Pinckney (?1693-1784), of Burnham, Norf". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 William Brown (1844). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery: During the Time of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, Volume 2. C. C. Little and J. Brown. p. 40. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Country Life Burnham Westgate Hall
  4. ↑ Thomas Pitt Baron Camelford (1785). Narrative and Proofs: By Thomas Lord Camelford, Volume 7. p. 93. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  5. ↑ James Stanier Clarke, John McArthur (2010). The Naval Chronicle: Volume 22, July-December 1809: Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects, Volume 22. Cambridge University Press. p. 303. ISBN 9781108018616. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
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