encounter with one Cargill,” probably Captain Richard Cargill, member for Vere. [Illustration: FORT WILLIAM—AQUEDUCT ] Peter Beckford, the speaker, married Bathshua, daughter and co-heiress of Colonel Julines Herring, of Jamaica. He was elected member of Assembly for Port Royal in 1704, and in the next Assembly of 1705 was chosen for three parishes, St. James, Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth, but elected to sit for the last named. He continued to serve as a member in every Assembly of the island until his death—in the early part of the time generally for St. Elizabeth, in the later for St. Catherine. As member for the former parish he was five times chosen speaker—in 1707, 1708–9, 1711, 1713, 1716. At this time he applied to be deputy secretary of the island, under a deputation from William Congreve, but the Governor (Lord Archibald Hamilton) refused to accept him on the ground that he was “the chief actor in all the unhappy differences in the country.” He was comptroller of her Majesty’s customs. He died in 1735, aged 61. From the votes of the Assembly we learn that he bequeathed the sum of £1000 to the poor of the parish of St. Catherine. This sum was used in the formation of a school: it is now merged with the Smith bequest in the Beckford and Smith School at Spanish Town. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for December 1735 he is said to have left nearly £300,000. Besides mortgages and similar investments, he had no less than twenty-four plantations and twelve hundred slaves of his own in the island. [Illustration: PORT WILLIAM ESTATE ] He had thirteen children. The eldest, Peter, was member of the Assembly for Westmoreland in 1728, while his father was sitting for St. Catherine, and his uncle for Port Royal. He died unmarried in 1737, aged 31. On his death his fortune went to his brother William, afterwards Lord Mayor of London, whose son was the celebrated William Beckford, of “Vathek” and Fonthill fame.