Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet

Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet, FRS, FSA (December 1749 – 10 January 1815) was a British politician and colonial administrator. He was the governor of Tobago from 1807 – January 1815, and Member of Parliament for St Mawes, 19 June 1784 – 3 November 1806, and Buckingham, 5 November 1806 – 23 March 1807.

Early life

William Young was born in Charlton, Kent on December 1749, the eldest son of Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, governor of Dominica, and his second wife, Elizabeth Young, the daughter of the mathematician Brook Taylor. His siblings included Sarah Elizabeth, Portia, Elizabeth, Mary Young Sewell, Henry, John, and Olivia. As a child, he and ten other family members were featured in the oil on canvas painting, The Family of Sir William Young, Baronet (ca.1766) by Johan Zoffany. He enrolled at Clare College, Cambridge in 1767 but transferred to University College, Oxford, on 26 November 1768. After graduating he travelled France and Italy and documented his travels. In 1777, he published The spirit of Athens, an acclaimed insight into the political and philosophical history of Greece.

Career A portrait of the Young family by Johan Zoffany ; William Young is first from right.

In 1782, Young he was appointed by the proprietors of the colony of Tobago to represent them in the French court to settle territorial disputes. and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1791. In 1788, his father died and passed on four sugar plantations to his son—one in Antigua, two in St Vincent, and one in Tobago—and a total of 896 African slaves. in which he also served as chief editor. Notable works by Young also included The rights of Englishmen, or, The British constitution of government compared with that of a democratic republic (1793); Considerations on Poorhouses and Workhouses: their Pernicious Tendency (1796), Instructions for the Armed Yeomanry (1797) and The West Indian Commonplace Book (1807). The same year, Young was appointed Governor of Tobago, a post which he retained until his death. He died on 10 January 1815 at Government House, Tobago.

Personal life On 12 August 1777, he married Sarah at St George the Martyr, Queen Square, London, the daughter and coheir of Charles Lawrence and his wife, Mary, née Mihil. They had four sons and two daughters. Sarah died in 1791 and Young remarried on 22 April 1793 at St George's, Hanover Square, London, to Barbara, the daughter of Colonel Richard Talbot and his wife, Margaret, later Baroness Talbot of Malahide. Sarah's uncle was Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin. She survived Young, dying 15 years later after his death in 1830.