William Wollaston (Ipswich MP elected 1768)
Colonel William Wollaston was a British Member of Parliament for Ipswich between 1768 and 1784.
Life
He was born the eldest son of William [Wollaston (Ipswich MP elected 1733)|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 East [Suffolk Militia|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.
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, whose family owned the neighbouring estate at Onehouse.