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William Augustus Fawkener

Biography


Birth: abt. 1750
Death: 1811

Son of Everard Fawkener (1684-1758) and Harriet Churchill (ca. 1726-1777).1 Married (1784) to Georgiana Ann Poyntz (1763-1851). He became a clerk to the Privy Council, and was, in 1791, sent on a secret mission to Empress Catherine II of Russia.2

Fawkener's marriage to Georgiana quickly ended in divorce, and his then former wife married Lord John Townsend in 1787.

Life with James Boswell

Boswell rode with Fawkener, then a student at the Collegium Carolinum in Brunswick, from Brunswick to Wolfenbuttel on August 14, 1764. He described him as “a genteel, pretty, amiable young fellow”.

Notes

Note 1: Everard Fawkener is best known as the friend of Voltaire, at whose house the famous philosopher lived for a major part of his stay in England. He was also at various points, a silk merchant, secretary to the Duke of Cumberland, ambassador to Turkey, and postmaster general.

Note 2: Dictionary of National Biography, entry "Fawkener, Everard".


Recommended literature

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  • Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1763-1764

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