William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke

The Right Honourable
The Lord Winterstoke
The Right Honourable The Lord Winterstoke
	Sir William Wills
Member of the British Parliament; for Coventry
	In office; 1880–1885 Serving with Sir Henry Mather Jackson 1880–1881; Henry Eaton 1881–1885;
Preceded by	Henry Eaton; Henry Mather Jackson;
Succeeded by	Henry Eaton
Member of the British Parliament; for Bristol East
	In office; 1895–1900
Preceded by	Sir Joseph Dodge Weston
Succeeded by	Charles Hobhouse
Personal details
Born	1 September 1830
Died	29 January 1911 (aged 80)
Political party	Liberal
Parent	William Day Wills (father);
Relatives	Sir Frederick Wills (cousin); Sir Frank William Wills (cousin); Henry Overton Wills III (cousin);

William Henry Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke (1 September 1830 – 29 January 1911), known as Sir William Wills, Bt., between 1893 and 1906, was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician.

Background

Wills was the son of William Day Wills and a cousin of Sir Edward Payson Wills Bt, Sir Frederick Wills Bt, Sir Frank William Wills Kt, and Henry Overton Wills III, first chancellor of the University of Bristol.

Business career

A member of the wealthy Bristol tobacco-importing Wills family, Wills joined the family firm at an early age. In 1858 he went into partnership with two of his cousins to take over W. D. & H. O. Wills, which later became part of the Imperial Tobacco Company, of which he was the first chairman. Recognised as the head of the tobacco industry in Britain, he was also Chairman of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce. In 1904 he presented the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery to the people of Bristol.

Political career

"Birdseye". Caricature by Spy published in *Vanity Fair* in 1893.

Wills was a member of the Bristol Corporation from 1862 to 1880 and sheriff of the city from 1877 to 1878. He also sat as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for two separate five-year periods: for Coventry from 1880 to 1885, and for Bristol East from 1895 to 1900.^[1] He served as High Sheriff of Somerset in 1905.^[2]

He was made a Baronet, of Coombe Lodge in the Parish of Blagdon in the County of Somerset, in 1893^[3] and raised to the peerage as Baron Winterstoke, of Blagdon in the County of Somerset, in 1906.^[4] He took his title from the ancient hundred of Winterstoke, in which his home at Blagdon lay.

Personal life

Wills was educated at Mill Hill School, before joining the family tobacco business.

Lord Winterstoke was a keen supporter of the arts, serving as President of what is now the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) from 1898 until his death in 1911 and donating the money to create Bristol City Art Gallery, whose facade bears the inscription "The Gift of Sir William Henry Wills to his Fellow Citizens 1904".

He was also the president of the charitable Anchor Society in Bristol in 1866, and vice-president of Waverley Football Club from 1890.^[5]

A zealous nonconformist by personal conviction as well as by family tradition, he actively engaged in the affairs of the free churches. He joined the board of the Dissenting Deputies, was a trustee of the Memorial Hall in London, and took a practical interest in the refoundation of Mansfield College, Oxford in 1886. To the new chapel of Mill Hill School, opened in June 1898, he gave an organ and other substantial help; his portrait, subscribed for by the governors, is at the school.

He married Elizabeth Perkins Stancomb on 11 January 1853, in Melksham, Wiltshire. Elizabeth was born 6 November 1831 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and died at their seaside home of East Court, Ramsgate, Kent on 10 February 1896, and was buried in Ramsgate Cemetery, Plot D.C.189. They adopted Elizabeth's two nieces.

He died without heirs in January 1911, aged 80, when the baronetcy and barony became extinct. His estate was worth £2,548,209 (roughly equivalent to £327,785,900 in 2023^[6]). A portrait of Lord Winterstoke hangs in the Middle Common Room of Mansfield College, Oxford.^[7]

References

^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
^ "No. 27777". The London Gazette. 21 March 1905. p. 2179.
^ "No. 26432". The London Gazette. 15 August 1893. p. 4641.
^ "No. 27883". The London Gazette. 6 February 1906. p. 869.
^ "Topics of the Day". Western Daily Press. 11 August 1890. Retrieved 18 June 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
^ Mansfield College, University of Oxford BBC ^{[dead link]}

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Eaton Henry Mather Jackson	Member of Parliament for Coventry 1880–1885 With: Sir Henry Mather Jackson 1880–1881 Henry Eaton 1881–1885	Succeeded by Henry Eaton
Preceded by Sir Joseph Dodge Weston	Member of Parliament for Bristol East 1895–1900	Succeeded by Charles Hobhouse
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Winterstoke 1906–1910	Extinct
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baronet (of Blagdon) 1893–1910	Extinct