William Alexander Madocks (17 June 1773 – 15 September 1828) was a British politician and landowner who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Boston in Lincolnshire from 1802 to 1820, and then for Chippenham in Wiltshire from 1820 to 1826.

Frances was the daughter of a London merchant called Joseph Whitchurch, who came from Loughborough in County Down, Ireland, although her mother was English and they lived at Twickenham.

[1] The Madocks family had long associations with Wales, traceable back to the time of King Henry II, and William's father inherited property at Llangwyfan and near Wrexham.

As he rose to prominence in the legal profession, the family moved to a substantial Jacobean house with its own private theatre in North Cray, Kent, as the Welsh properties were too far away.

[2] At the age of eleven, he went to Charterhouse boarding school, and spent five and a half years there, but left in December 1789, when it appears that the Founder's Day celebrations got out of hand, and William refused to submit to a flogging of the whole class.

The Napoleonic Wars resulted in few of the gentry making grand tours of Europe, and travel to the remote parts of Britain, including the Lake District and Wales became popular.

There was a tradition of house-parties and theatre, with Sir Watkin of Wynnstay holding a six-week season of plays each winter, at which Madocks and his brothers excelled.

Madocks' ideas on communities with a sense of purpose were shaped at this time by his brother's building of a house at Erith, where he also saw the benefits of reclaimed land, in this case former marshes by the River Thames.

[9] In 1798, Madocks bought the Tan-yr-Allt estate, on the western bank of Traeth Mawr, a large expanse of sand and tidal marsh which formed the estuary of the Afon Glaslyn.

The Union with Ireland meant that there was a need for improved communication between the two countries, and Madocks was in favour of a route which crossed his estate, to reach Porthdinllaen, on the northern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, which would provide the terminus for a ferry to Dublin.

Madocks asked Creassy to design the planned embankment and dam across Traeth Mawr, and in early 1806, attempted to obtain an Act of Parliament to authorise it.

Williams circulated the news in the region, and whereas many landowners and farmers had initially been hostile to the project, they now seemed to understand its importance, and volunteered any assistance they could give.

[23] In an effort to save his estate from creditors, the land was transferred to Madocks' brother Joseph and Alexander Murray, once the clerk of his father at Lincoln's Inn.

[26] He returned, enthusiastic to complete a bridge over Traeth Bach, the estuary of the Afon Dwyryd, which would create a route from his embankment to Harlech and Trawsfynydd.

[29] 1818 concluded with a visit to Tremadog with his new family, on a scale which was rather less grandiose than former occasions, although he still instructed Williams to organise fireworks, balls and salutes of guns.

Two years later, his brother Joseph died, which should have secured Madocks' future prosperity, as he stood to inherit £12,000 from a Trust set up by his father, but he already had plans for further schemes in North Wales.

He realised that a railway from Blaenau Ffestiniog could transport slates directly from the quarries to ships in the harbour, and set about obtaining Acts of Parliament to sanction both, but there was some local opposition to the schemes.

Williams was by this time the Director of Works for the newly named Port Madoc Harbour, and took on responsibility for the railway plans, as Madocks was suffering from jaundice.

[33] A rival scheme, backed by the banker Meyer Rothschild, was proposed to run down the Croesor Valley on the other side of the Moelwyn mountains, but included inclines over the hills to reach Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The line proposed by Provis was rejected in Parliament, in favour of Rothschild's route, but then local landowners became suspicious of the rival scheme, and it too was defeated.

[36] A party left to visit France, Switzerland and Italy on 31 May 1826, consisting of Madocks, his wife, step-daughter, daughter, sister-in-law, a governess for Eliza, two maids and a manservant.

[39] As they travelled homewards, Madocks' letters to Williams and to John Etheridge, who was managing the houses at Morfa Lodge and Tan-yr-Allt, were full of new ideas and instructions to ensure things would be ready for their return.

Porthmadog grew rapidly, but the scheme for Porthdinllaen Harbour foundered, superseded by Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait, which opened up the route to Ireland via Holyhead.

The Bill for Catholic Emancipation, another aim for which he had fought, was passed in 1829, and the first reformed parliament, which had been one of the main thrusts of his political career, was convened three years later.