Thomas Wilson (c.1767–1852) was an English West India merchant and politician.

Life

He was the son of Robert Wilson of Wood House,

East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Essex, East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a ...

, in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. By 1794 he was in partnership with the Agassiz family of

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, London. With a background in commerce on

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, he stood successfully for parliament for the

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in 1818. He was re-elected in the 1820 general election, a consistent advocate of mercantile interests. In 1824 Wilson's firm became Wilson and Blanshard, a company that endured through most of the 19th century in various locations. He did not stand for re-election in 1826. Thomas was the first chairman of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (now known as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution,

RNLI The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. Founded in 1824 ...

), from 1824 to 1849. He supported Sir William Hillary's appeal for a national institution and lobbied his political friends for further support. Thomas Wilson was elected chairman at the first meeting, held in the London Tavern in Bishopsgate.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Thomas 1760s births 1852 deaths English merchants Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826