Sir William Blackett, 1st Baronet (May 1621 – 16 May 1680) was a businessman who founded a mercantile and industrial base in Newcastle and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1673 to 1680.
On informing them that he dealt in that article and had a large quantity to dispose of, speculators soon flocked around him and he sold his whole cargo at a most extravagant price, and the produce of that adventure laid the foundation for one of the largest fortunes acquired in Newcastle.
Sir William (and also his children) is said to have regarded with a kind of veneration the hedge from which he first perceived the vessel and made it the extent of his future morning walks.Blackett was a member of Merchant Adventurers at Newcastle in 1645 and became freeman in 1646.
He played no apparent part in the English Civil War or interregnum politics until the time of the Restoration.
He was governor of the Hostman's Company from 1662 to 1664 and was Mayor of Newcastle for 1666–67 during which year of office he appeased a riot over taxes with an assurance that payment was voluntary.
He invested heavily in the local coalfield, and once spent £20,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to drain a flooded pit.
In 1672, he was involved in a dispute with the local customs officials as member of the syndicate which leased the coal export duties from Lord Townshend for £3,200 a year.