Home > William Thomas Beckford

He was born in Fonthill, Wiltshire, in the manor house owned by his father, former Lord Mayor of London William Beckford. From him, William Jr. inherited, at the age of ten, a large fortune consisting of £1 million in cash, land, and several sugar plantations in Jamaica, which allowed him to indulge his interest in art and architecture, not to mention writing.

Three years later he married the fourth Earl of Aboyne's daughter, Lady Margaret Gordon on May 5th, 1783. She later died in childbirth. Beckford was primarily homosexual, and at the age of 19 notoriously had an affair with the Hon William Courtenay , later 3rd Viscount and 9th Earl of Devon, then ten years old.

Having studied under Sir William ChambersSir William Chambers ( 1723- 1796) was a Scottish architect, (though born in Stockholm where his father was a merchant). Between 1740 and 1749 he was employed by the Swedish East India Company making several voyages to China where he studied Chinese archi and William Cozens , he travelled in ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer in 1782Events January 7 The first American commercial bank opens ( Bank of North America). January 15 Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage February 5 Span and promptly wrote a book on the subject: Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents ( 1783Events February 3 American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence. February 4 American Revolutionary War: Great Britain formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States of America. May 18 Saint John, New Brun). Shortly afterwards came his best-known work, the Gothic novelThe gothic novel is an English literary genre, which can be said to have been born with The Castle of Otranto ( 1764) by Horace Walpole. It is the predecessor to modern horror fiction and it above all has led to the common definition of gothic as being co VathekVathek (alternatively titled Vathek, an Arabian Tale or The History of the Caliph Vathek is a Gothic novel written by William Thomas Beckford. It was composed in French in 1782, and then translated into English by Reverend Samuel Henley, in which form it ( 1786Events May 21 Trial of the Necklace affair ends in Paris August 8 Mont Blanc was climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat. September 2 Hurricane in England Choctaw Treaty Chickasaw Treaty Robert Burns publishes Poems, C), written originally in French and, as he was accustomed to boast, at a single sitting of three days and two nights. There is reason, however, to believe that this was a flight of imagination. It is an impressive work, full of fantastic and magnificent conceptions, rising occasionally to sublimity. His other principal writings are Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780), a satirical work, and Letters from Italy with Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1835), full of brilliant descriptions of scenes and manners. In 1793Events January 2 Russia and Prussia partition Poland January 9 Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States. January 21 After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, "Citizen Capet" ie. Louis XVI of Fran he visited Portugal, where he lived for a while.

The opportunity of purchasing the complete library of Edward Gibbon gave Beckford the basis of his own library, and James Wyatt built Fonthill Abbey, in which this and the owner's art collection would be housed; it was completed in 1807. He entered parliament as member for Wells and later for Hindon, but mostly lived in seclusion, spending most of his father's wealth without adding to it, so that the great house he had built became a ruin. In 1822 he sold it and moved to Lansdowne Hill , where he built Lansdown Tower .

He had a seat in parliament from 1784 to 1793, and again from 1806 to 1820.

He died on May 2, 1844, at his residence, Lansdown Crescent, age 84. He left one son and two daughters. The eldest daughter was married to the 10th duke of Hamilton.

He is buried in Salisbury Cathedral.