William Bulkeley (4 November 1691 – 28 October 1760) was a minor Welsh landowner, remembered chiefly as a diarist.
Every day he recorded his impression of the weather, but he also gives many details of estate management, local politics and religious upheaval, his patronage of harpists, cattle-dealing in the local fairs, his legal duties as justice of the peace, and his visit to Dublin.
He seldom alludes to his business dealings, but in 1736 he refers to a debt and to money paid in London: "being entirely abandoned by all my pretended friends, (good Mr. L. of Llysdulas in particular) in my utmost necessity to assist me to find out money to pay a great Debt I run into by his persuasion & tho I writt to him (being now in Ireland) never vouchsafed an Answer, I went to day to Cwtt y Dwndwr, haveing had Morris Lewis's Letter that I might have 800L.
[7] He also refers to the marital troubles of his daughter Mary, who in 1738 married Fortunatus Wright, merchant and privateer of Liverpool.
[...from my Daughter Mary Bulkeley whose suitor he had been the ... [consent to have him for her husband, & tho I thought him not equall to her...[8] "21st.
therein requesting - either my speedy consent to her being marryed to Wright forthwith, whereby she may prevent all further trouble, or to send for her home.
for Postage with a double Letter I sent to my Daughter at Leghorn in answer to 4 received from her one on the back of another complaining of the unheard of cruelty & persecution she undergoes there ever since the Death of her husband by one Evelin who had Married Phillipa Wright his Daughter by a former wife, who by his great influence in yt fact & Interest with the Consul, claiming all Wright's effects as pretending to be due him onely by the laws of that Countrey had the Consul's leave to seize on all she had, & that she is now destitute of every thing, lodging with the Woman who had come over from liverpool along with her"[10]