Colonial Despatches

William Alexander Mackinnon was a British politician who was born in Dauphiné, France on 2 August 1784.1 Mackinnon wrote a letter of recommendation for Captain William Driscoll Gosset who requested to be transferred to the post of Treasurer General in the Colony of British Columbia.2 The letter was attached with the despatch from Gosset to Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer Lytton on 18 August 1858.3 At the time of the despatch, Mackinnon was serving as the Member of Parliament for Rye, a position that he held from 1853 to 1859.4 Mackinnon held several seats in the British Parliament throughout his career, however his position as MP for Rye is particularly interesting because he was elected to the position after his son, also named William Alexander Mackinnon (1832-1903), was unseated on petition.5 Mackinnon died on 30 April 1870 at his property in Broadstairs, England.6

• 1. H. C. G Matthew, Mackinnon, William Alexander, of Mackinnon, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Gosset to Lytton, 18 August, 1858, 8511, CO 6/28, 29
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. H. C .G Matthew, Mackinnon, William Alexander, of Mackinnon, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 5. Ibid.
• 6. Ibid.