WILLIAMSON, Sir Hedworth II, 8th bt. (1827-1900), of Whitburn Hall, nr. Sunderland, co. Durham.

Born in Florence, Williamson, who was ‘a well-known figure on Wearside’, was the eldest son of Sir Hedworth Williamson, who sat as a Liberal for County Durham, 1831-32, Durham North, 1832-37, and Sunderland, 1847-52.1Northern Echo, 27 Aug. 1900. His father, who owned the Monkwearmouth estate on the north bank of the River Wear, had commanded a significant interest in Sunderland on the eve of reform, but the failure of his north docks scheme damaged the family’s political influence in the borough, whose inhabitants favoured a dock south of the river Wear.2HP Commons, 1820-1832, vii. 795-6; T.J. Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms in reformed England: case studies from the North-east, 1832-74 (1975), 119. In 1848 Williamson joined the diplomatic service as an attaché to the St Petersburg embassy, and two years later moved to Paris, before resigning his position in 1854.3F. Boase, Mod. Eng. Biog. (1901), iii. 1385. In 1861 he succeeded his father to the baronetcy and to the Monkwearmouth estate, with its colliery and dock. In 1863 he married his cousin, Elizabeth Jane Liddell, daughter of Earl Ravensworth, thus cementing an alliance with one of the region’s dominant Conservative landowners.

In June 1864 Williamson came forward for a vacancy at Durham North, following the death of the sitting member, Lord Adolphus Vane. An advocate of non-intervention in American and Danish affairs, he championed Palmerston’s foreign policy, and was returned unopposed.4Leeds Mercury, 20 June 1864. He moved the address in answer to the Queen’s speech, 7 Feb. 1865, and thereafter supported the Liberal ministry on all major issues. At the 1865 general election he insisted that redistribution, rather than a large extension of the franchise, should be at the heart of any reform bill, and was comfortably re-elected.5Newcastle Courant, 7 July 1865. He backed Russell’s short-lived ministry’s reform bill, 27 Apr. 1866, and pressed for the North Durham electorate to be increased by 2,500, 11 June 1866. He was against the motion of no confidence in ministers, 18 June 1866.

Williamson rarely spoke in the Commons, and his handful of known contributions chiefly concerned electoral reform. He supported the government’s proposal to enfranchise Durham University by uniting it with the University of London, 17 June 1867, and successfully led the opposition to altering the boundaries of South Shields and Gateshead, 11 June 1868, a subject on which he had given evidence to the 1867-68 select committee on the boundaries of boroughs.6PP 1867-68 (311), viii. 9. He followed Gladstone into the division lobby on all the major clauses of the representation of the people bill, save for his vote in favour of cumulative voting, 5 July 1867.

At the 1868 general election Williamson headed the poll and thereafter backed Gladstone’s administration on most major issues, but was implacably opposed to Irish home rule.7Morning Post, 27 Aug. 1900. He offered again at the 1874 general election, but his decision to instruct his interest to give their second vote to the Conservative candidate caused uproar amongst the local Liberal party, and there was little surprise when he withdrew before the nomination.8Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms, 97. He remained active in local political life, and was appointed high sheriff of Durham in 1877 and provincial grandmaster of the Durham freemasons in 1885.9Morning Post, 27 Aug. 1900. He died at the family seat of Whitburn Hall, near Sunderland, in August 1900. His eldest son, Hedworth, succeeded to the baronetcy and estates. The Williamson family papers are located at the Tyne and Wear Archives Service, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.10TWAS, ref. DX882.