MONEY, William Taylor (1769-1834), of Walthamstow, Essex.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

8 July 1816 - 1820
1820 - Mar. 1826

Family and Education

b. 4 Sept. 1769,1 1st s. of Capt. William Money of Wood End House, Walthamstow, dir. E.I. Co. 1789-96, by Martha, da. of James Taylor, merchant chandler, of Carmarthen. m. 8 June 1797, Eugenia, da. of William Money of Homme House, Much Marcle, Herefs., 6s. 3da. suc. fa. 1796; KH 1831.

Offices Held

Capt. E.I. Co. navy 1793-1801; supt. marine board, Bombay 1803-10.

Dir. E.I. Co. Dec. 1818-26.

Consul gen. at Venice and Milan 1826-d.

Biography

Like his father, Money entered the East India Company navy, serving in the General Goddard (1791-9) and the Walthamstow (1799-1801). In 1795 he took part in an action off St. Helena that resulted in the capture of seven Dutch East Indiamen. When he returned to England he had been seven years superintendent for the Bombay marine.

In 1816 Money was returned to Parliament in the wake of a fellow East Indian, for Wootton Bassett, where he stood a contest on the interest of Joseph Pitt*. He borrowed the expenses from his friend Charles Forbes*. Then and in 1818 he scraped home, but looked elsewhere for a seat in 1820. In the House he supported the Liverpool administration. In his maiden speech he concurred in the vote of thanks to Lord Exmouth for his naval services, which he particularized, 3 Feb. 1817. He voted with ministers on Admiralty questions, 17 and 25 Feb. 1817, and on the navy estimates, 17 Mar. 1818, suggested that remuneration for naval officers should bear better comparison with that for army officers. He voted to indemnify ministers for their employment of informers against sedition, 5 Mar. 1818, voted in the government minority in favour of the ducal marriage grant, 15 Apr., and voted his approval of the imprisonment of radical booksellers, 21 Apr.

On non-party questions he was less conservative: he voted for Catholic relief, 9 May 1817; applauded the compensation of £400,000 to the Spanish government to put down the slave trade, 18 Mar. 1818; thought the high bailiff of Westminster should be indemnified for his election expenses, 21 Apr.; supported inquiry into the claims of the creditors of the nawab of the Carnatic, 21 May; disbelieved the charges from the Ionian isles against General Campbell, 1 June 1818, as also those against his friend Governor Macquarie in New South Wales, though he would not resist inquiry, 23 Mar. 1819, and voted for his friend Mackintosh’s motion for inquiry into the criminal laws, 2 Mar. 1819. (He had been foreman of the jury which thanked Mackintosh for his judicial services on his departure from India, 16 July 1811.)2

On 6 Jan. 1819 he took his seat as an East India Company director.3 He voted against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, and for the foreign enlistment bill, 10 June 1819. On 21 Dec. he spoke in favour of the blasphemous libel bill, to counter the dissemination of godless principles through schools and Sunday newspapers. He was still in town on 23 Dec., voting in favour of anti-radical legislation. Of his speech two days before he wrote to his wife that he was ‘listened to with the greatest attention’. He went on:

Mr William Smith, Member for Norwich, who is so often at Mr Wilberforce’s, rose after me and said that I had made assertions without foundation. When he had concluded, I rose again and called to the recollection of the House that I had, step by step, given my authority for every statement made. I was cheered and particularly when I stated this. After I had done, Lord Jocelyn came to me and said he had never heard a speech that gave him greater pleasure. Lord Castlereagh, on the House breaking up paid me a handsome compliment. Mr Plunket thanked me and said he had been much gratified, and that I was perfectly justified in all I had said. Several others expressed themselves to the same effect—but above all dear Mr Wilberforce, taking me warmly by the hand, expressed his obligation in terms which even to you I can hardly describe ... It was his hoarseness that prevented his supporting me last night.

Money’s later years were clouded by the vicissitudes of his investment in estates in Java, and he entered the consular service. He died of cholera in Venice, 3 Apr. 1834. According to his memorial at St. Mary’s, Walthamstow:

Whilst in Parliament he laboured with Wilberforce and Buxton for the abolition of slavery in the West Indies and the establishment of Christianity and extension of Christian missions throughout Eastern India.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Authors: J. W. Anderson / R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Money’s MI at Walthamstow gives 4 Sept. 1771, but he was apparently baptized at St. Peter’s, Carmarthen, 18 Sept. 1769, unless this infant died. What follows is based on Money’s pprs. (Harrowby Trust mss).
  • 2. Mackintosh Mems. ii. 31, 113.
  • 3. Morning Chron. 7 Jan. 1819.