Wills, Alexander

Wills 11.1.1797 at Bosville's / 14.3.1797 calls / 14.8.1798 adv at Joseph Johnson's / 28.12.1801 call on Wills proctor / 18.5.1806 at Horne Tooke's / 12.6.1816 S(arah) E(lwes) & Wills dine

Wills proctor was probably John Wills of Bell Yard, or Robert Willis of 2 Bennet's Hill, both proctors of Doctors Commons in 1800 Law list. Some or all of the other Wills entries may well have been Alexander Wills dancing master, an enthusiastic supporter of radical causes.

Alexander Wills of Harley St proposed Society for Constitutional Information 7.12.1792 by Thomas Holcroft 2nded John Horne Tooke

Joseph Alexander Wills, dancing master of 13 Edward St, Cavendish Square (Sun Fire 1776) may have been him or more likely his father or brother. An advert in the Morning Post 12.4.1779 announced the first ball of Mr Wills, late assistant to Mr Gallini, at the New Rooms, Hanover Sq, tickets 10s 6d to be had at his house 55 Harley St, Cavendish Sq. On 20.9.1790 he married Joyce Guy of Lewisham, Kent at St Marylebone, their daughter Mary Ann Guy Wills was born 30.9.1791, baptised at St Marylebone on 25.9.1791 and was buried there on 16.10.1791. He joined the SCI in December 1792 and attended meetings on 21.12.1792, 11.1.1793, 18.1.1793, 1.2.1793 and 15.3.1793, and also joined the LCS (Div 37 at Proctor's Covent Garden and Div 2 at Compton St). He was a witness at Thomas Hardy's trial for treason in 1794 when both judge and counsel made fun of his profession. He stated he had joined the radical societies because he liked to hear clever men speak, had subscribed (maybe 2/6d) to the wife of William Carter, imprisoned billsticker, knew a Mr Carter, musician at the London Coffee House, and owned shares in the Fisheries. In the 1796 Westminster election he plumped for Tooke and was first to vote at the St Margaret's polling booth from his address at 15 Barton St, near to Westminster School where he was dancing master. In the 1790s he also appeared in musical directories as a violinist. By1802 his address was 3 Golden Sq and he voted for Fox and Graham in the Westminster election, and in the 1802 Middlesex election he bought a share in the Good Intent Mill at Isleworth and voted for Burdett (there were 300 mill voters but only three who lived in London & Westminster, most were from the Isleworth area). Alexander Wills of Buckingham Place was mentioned in the will dated 9.5.1806 of John Moody bootmaker of Carnaby St, and a Moody was listed by Godwin next to Wills at Tooke's on 18.5.1806 (see my entries for Moody, John in Godwin Diary dataset and for Moody, John & Samuel in LCS dataset). Wills moved to Marchwood, Eling, Hampshire and married Sarah Andrews there on 1.6.1811 three weeks after the birth of their son Charles Alexander. They had seven more children there (Ann, Sarah, Christiana, John Edgar, James, Cecilia & Frances: Eling baptisms) and he was buried at Eling on 1.2.1833 aged 82. His widow was a landed proprietor at Marchwood in the 1851 census and his son Charles Alexander was a shoemaker