Richard Beckford (died 12 August 1796) was an English Whig[1] politician.[2]
Biography
editBeckford was one the first mixed-race Members of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and served for the constituencies of Bridport, Arundel and Leominster from 1780 until his death in 1796.[3]
He previously, unsuccessfully, attempted to be elected to Hindon in both 1774, against Thomas Brand Hollis and Richard Smith, and the 1775 by-election when both Smith and Hollis were removed from office for bribery, but was unsuccessful.[4]
Beckford's father, William Beckford, was an MP and plantation owner, whilst his mother was a Jamaican slave.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk.
- ^ "BECKFORD, Richard (d.1796), of Nicholas Lane, Lombard St., London | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
- ^ Lees, Rebecca (October 28, 2020). "Who were the first MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds?" – via commonslibrary.parliament.uk.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "BECKFORD, Richard (D.1796), of Nicholas Lane, Lombard St., London | History of Parliament Online".
- ^ Goodrich, Amanda (2019-02-07). Henry Redhead Yorke, Colonial Radical: Politics and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1772-1813. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-61883-3.