Place Name
Sir William Scawen (born sometime around 1644 – October 18, 1722) was an MP and Governor of the Bank of England who in 1696 bought a share in Carshalton manor, meaning that he held the lordship jointly with Joseph Short. In 1713 he unified the manor by buying the other half which had once been in the possession of a lawyer colourfully named Dixey Longe (it was the Longe and Short holding). A E Jones in From Medieval Manor to London Suburb detects the move away from the manor providing a source of income to something else” “For a man like Sir William Scawen, who was a rich merchant of the City of London, this was more an investment in prestige than a financial enterprise. He had already made his fortune by putting most of his money on William of Orange when the latter’s future as England’s William III was still uncertain. Aubrey relates a story of Sir William’s going, in great anxiety, to the siege of Namur (presumably the one in 1695 which ended in its recapture from the French to whom William III had lost it in 1692). The King, upon observing this odd addition to his forces, enquired, ‘Sir William what do you do here?’; to which the reply was ‘Please your majesty it matters not what becomes of me if your majesty should return safe to England.’ William III did come back unscathed from his Continental campaigns and Sir William’s prosperity was assured. It was reported that he had lent his royal namesake as much as £1,200,000 – though this sum is hardly believable; the interest rate attributed to the loan — 8%—is, however, more credible. One thing is certain; in his speculation on royal futures, Sir William was more successful than his predecessor, Sir Henry Burton. William III was a grateful debtor and Sir William Scawen, besides getting his knighthood, was, in 1695, appointed Governor of the Bank of England. He made Carshalton the family home and the Scawens kept the lordship of the manor until 1781.” Sir William, a former MP for New Windsor, Grampound, and Surrey, who had also been a director of the East India Company from 1710 to 1712, died, aged 75, in 1722. He was buried with his wife Mary, the daughter of Sir William Maynard, 1st Baronet of Walthamstow (who despite being 20 years his junior died in 1700). With no children of his own he left £7,000 to each of his three younger nephews, the sons of his brother Thomas, and all his real property in Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Yorkshire, Cornwall and Ireland to his eldest nephew, Thomas Scawen, with £10,000 from his personal estate to be spent on rebuilding the house at Carshalton according to plans already made, which were never carried out.
