STRICKLAND, William (c.1686-1735), of Boynton, Yorks.

Brought in by Lord Carlisle for Carlisle in 1715, Strickland voted for the septennial bill in 1716 but against the Government in the division of 4 June 1717 on Lord Cadogan. Like his father, he voted for the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts but against the peerage bill in 1719. In 1722 he stood successfully for Scarborough, where Walpole’s brother, Horace, as a secretary to the Treasury, had given him the Treasury patronage in preference to the former Whig Member.1Undated letter from On 12 Feb. 1725 he seconded the motion for Lord Macclesfield’s impeachment, of which he was one of the managers. In the changes following Pulteney’s dismissal in the following April he secured a seat at the Treasury board, thenceforth becoming one of the chief government spokesmen. Appointed treasurer to the Queen on George II’s accession and secretary at war in 1730, he continued to take a leading part in debates till he was prevented by illness from attending Parliament in 1733. He retained his post, with Walpole deputizing for him at the War office, till May 1735, when he was relieved of his duties.2HMC Carlisle, 96, 97, 151; Coxe, Walpole, i. 752; Hervey, Mems. 450. He died 1 Sept. 1735.