William Wilkinson (died 1836) was an Englishman appointed as the
Levant Company
The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...
's representative in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
in October 1813;
[ Florescu, Radu R. (2021), ''The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian Principalities'', Centre for Romanian Studies, pp. 94 & 95, ] His agency was terminated in 1816. Despite support for his candidacy from Prince
Ioan Caragea, the then
hospodar
''Gospodar'' or ''hospodar'', also ''gospodin'' as a diminutive, is a term of Slavic origin, meaning "lord" or " master". The compound (, , , sh-Latn-Cyrl, gospodar, господар, ) is a derivative of ''gospod'' / ''gospodin'', , or when spe ...
of
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...
, Wilkinson failed in his attempt to secure appointment as British Consul in Bucharest in 1818.
[Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...]
'', and the Romanian name Dracula was taken from it.
Wilkinson was later posted to
, in 1829, by the Levant Company. He died in Paris on 23 August 1836.