WALCOT, John (1697-1765), of Walcot, Salop.

In 1727 John Walcot rounded off his estates by purchasing the manor of Bishop’s Castle from his uncle, the Duke of Chandos, for £7,000,1Chandos to Walcot, 3 Apr. 1727, Walcot mss, Salop RO. thus acquiring the chief interest in that borough. With an income of £3,000 a year, burdened with a debt of £22,000, he stood for the county against Chandos’s advice to wait till he had paid off the debt.2Gent. Mag. 1732, p. 776; Walcot mss; Chandos to Walcot, 17 July 1727, Chandos letter bks. Returned as a Tory, he voted against the Government.

Though Walcot did not stand again he continued to support his interest at Bishop’s Castle, plunging deeper into debt. By 1742 he owed over £33,000 and was forced to procure a private Act of Parliament to raise money on his wife’s portion.315 16 Geo. 11, c.31; J. R. Burton, Hist. Walcot Fam. 85. Before the election of 1747 he borrowed £8,500 on mortgage from his banker, Samuel Child, who was standing for Bishop’s Castle. After a close contest in 1753 it was said that if his candidate, Dashwood King, failed to send him a remittance, Walcot ‘would have done asking votes in Bishop’s Castle’.4Walcot mss; S. Griffiths to Corbyn Morris, 27 Feb. 1753, Newcastle (Clumber) mss. The end came in 1761, when his debts had risen to over £48,000. He was forced to conceal himself from his creditors, leaving his son and lawyer to sell his property to Lord Clive for the vastly inflated price of £92,000.5Account of Abraham Jones, 14 May 1764, Walcot mss.

He died in 1765.