This first-ever biography of William Beckford provides a unique look at eighteenth-century British history from the perspective of the colonies. Even in his own time, Beckford was seen as a metaphor for the dramatic changes occurring during this era. He was born in 1709 into a family of wealthy sugar planters living in Jamaica, when the colonies were still peripheral to Britain. By the time he died in 1770, the colonies loomed large and were considered the source of Britain's growing global power. Beckford grew his fortune in Jamaica, but he spent most of his adult life in London, where he was elected Lord Mayor twice. As one of the few politicians to have experienced imperial growing pains on both sides of the Atlantic, his life offers a riveting look at how the expanding empire challenged existing political, social, and cultural norms.

Perry Gauci is a fellow and tutor in history at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. His most recent book is Regulating the British Economy, 1660-1850. He lives in Oxford.

"Gauci shows how William Beckford entered English politics with experience as a colonial Assemblyman and how his West India fortune sustained Beckford's place in English affairs. Gauci's wide-ranging curiosity will enable readers on both sides of the Atlantic to reevaluate the phenomenon of Alderman Beckford."--James Robertson, University of the West Indies