William Wollaston (Ipswich MP elected 1768)

He was born the eldest son of William Wollaston, MP and his wife Elizabeth Fauquier and educated at Bury St Edmunds Grammar School.

Before gaining his position in Parliament, he served as Colonel of the 2nd or East Suffolk Battalion in the Suffolk Militia. When the militia was embodied in 1778 during the War of American Independence, when the country was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, Wollaston commanded his battalion at a training encampment at Warley in Essex. However, he gave up the command in 1780.Webb, pp. 426–7.

He was a close friend of artist Thomas Gainsborough, with whom he shared a love of music. Gainsborough painted Wollaston's portrait in about 1758. In 1794 to pay off a gambling debt Wollaston sold the family estate of Finborough Hall to Roger Pettiward (d.1833), whose family owned the neighbouring estate at Onehouse.

Wollaston was married to Blanche, daughter of Robert Hyde Page and sister of Sir Thomas-Hyde Page. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni4BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1689 Bernard Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain. 4th ed. London : Harrison, Pall Mall, 1863. 1689] They had no children.

{{reflist}}

• John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain (1863) p. 1689
• John Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (1817) p. 834
• Augustine Page, John Kirby, A supplement to The Suffolk traveller [of J. Kirby] (Ipswich, 1844) p. 536
• Lt-Col E.A.H. Webb, History of the 12th (The Suffolk) Regiment 1685–1913, London: Spottiswoode, 1914/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2001, ISBN 978-1-84342-116-0,

• [http://omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/brisman/bookplate/item/8259 Bookplate of William Wollaston] Rare Books of the Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies, Washington University
• {{cite web |last1=Rayment |first1=Leigh |title=Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page - Peerages beginning with "I" |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersI.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027141006/http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersI.htm |archivedate=2019-10-27 |url-status=usurped}} {{Self-published source |date=May 2014}} {{BSN |date=May 2014}}

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{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for Ipswich

| years = 1768–1784

| with = Thomas Staunton

| before = Francis Vernon

| before2 = Thomas Staunton

| after = William Middleton

| after2 = John Cator

}}

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{{Wollaston family tree}}

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Category:1731 births

Category:1797 deaths

Category:People from Great Finborough

Category:Suffolk Militia officers

Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Ipswich

Category:British MPs 1768–1774

Category:British MPs 1774–1780

Category:British MPs 1780–1784

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