Peter Beckford (junior)

Peter Beckford (c. 1672/3 – 3 April 1735) was a Jamaican politician, merchant and planter who served as speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica from 1707 to 1713, and again from 1716 to 1717. Beckford was the son of Colonel Peter Beckford, a merchant and militia officer who served as the acting lieutenant-governor of Jamaica in 1702. Beckford's father sent him to study in England, where he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and New College, Oxford before being called to the bar in 1695. Quickly returning to Jamaica, Beckford was appointed as the Receiver General of Jamaica in 1696. However, he fled the colony in 1697 after killing another official, but eventually returned after his father managed to get the case declared nolle prosequi.

Beckford continued his political career after House of Assembly to Jamaica, being elected to the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1701 and sitting in the house for three decades. Twice serving as speaker of the house, Beckford engaged in successive disputes with several governors of Jamaica, including Thomas Handasyd, Lord Archibald Hamilton and Sir Nicholas Lawes. His most prominent dispute was with Hamilton, with the two engaging a pamphlet war from 1714 to 1717 that was extensively covered by the London press. Thanks in part to assistance from his relatives in England, Beckford eventually won the dispute. From 1722 to 1729, he served as a deputy to the writer William Congreve, who had been appointed to a variety of Jamaican offices in 1714.

Having dispatched his political enemies, Beckford continued expanding his business holdings and political influence in Jamaica. Having inherited most of his father's estate, Beckford's economic and political successes led him to achieve social pre-eminence among the British-Jamaican elite, with even his political rivals admitting to his fame and wealth; thanks to his legal training, Beckford also worked as a banker and lawyer for many of his fellow planters. Having married a woman named Bathshua Hering and had nine children with her, Beckford died in 1735 in Spanish Town and in his will gave most of his estate to his family and their dependents. Modern historians have made generally positive assessments about Beckford's political and mercantile acumen.