WILSONN, Charles Edward (c.1752-1829), of 13 Lombard Street, London and Bognor, Suss.

Wilsonn was probably the son of Robert Wilsonn, printer and stationer, of Birchin Lane and Lombard Street c.1752-77. The latter certainly had a son Richard by his wife Mary, in the same business, who died at Frome in 1785, having married in 1757 Isabella Longdon. In 1782 Charles Edward Wilsonn, a liveryman since 1774, was a stationer in Lombard Street; and in October 1784 he addressed two letters to Pitt offering to take on the office of receiver of the new window tax at a discount advantageous to the public and as efficiently ‘as I now do the old window tax account’. He claimed 20 years’ experience and wrote as ‘a sincere admirer of the present administration’.Plomer Bushell, Dict. Booksellers and Printers 1726-75; Gent. Mag. (1785), ii. 667; PRO 30/8/271, ff. 103, 105. He obtained another receivership instead. In 1788 he gave evidence to the Privy Council on gold coin and in 1792 wrote to beg the prime minister to preserve the gold standard. In 1794 he was of the committee that sponsored the Enfield infantry. He signed the London merchants’ declaration of loyalty to Pitt’s government in 1795. He was listed as an East India Company stockholder that year. He subscribed £25,000 as of Enfield and £25,000 as a City merchant at Change Alley for the loyalty loan of 1797. He was a governor of Christ’s Hospital, a former common councilman of London for Lambourn ward and a director of the Globe Insurance Company like Miles Peter Andrews, with whom he was connected by marriage through the Pigou family. Andrews made him an executor of his will in 1814 and he succeeded him as Member for Bewdley.PRO 30/8/190, ff. 204, 206; Berrow’s Worcester Jnl. 4 Aug. 1814; PCC 386 Bridport.

Wilsonn was a silent Member, all of whose known votes were on the ministerial side. He opposed Catholic relief both in 1816 and in 1817. He did not seek re-election in 1818. He died 14 Feb. 1829, leaving his widow £5,000 cash and £1,425 p.a.PCC 189 Liverpool. His widow in her will (PCC 524 Gloucester) mentions her late husband’s nephew Rev. Henry Comyn.