Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet

Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet of Boynton, Yorkshire (March 1665 – 12 May 1724) was an English landowner and racehorse owner who also served for many years as a member of parliament (MP).

Strickland was the son of Sir Thomas Strickland, 2nd Baronet and his wife Elizabeth Pile. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and succeeded to the baronetcy at the age of nineteen on his father's death in November 1684.

In 1689, he entered Parliament as member for Malton, a Yorkshire pocket borough controlled at that period by his father-in-law, who occupied its other seat himself. He represented that borough for three spells as well as periods as member for Yorkshire and Old Sarum. (When he stood down as MP for Malton in 1708, his place was taken by his son, William.) Strickland sat as a Whig, and in the factional battles within that party at the turn of the century was a follower of Lord Wharton and a supporter of the Junto.

Strickland was also appointed Commissary-General of the Musters, in 1720. He died in May 1724 from a fall at a fox hunt.

Strickland was an enthusiastic owner and breeder of racehorses, and one of his horses, the Acaster Turk, was Champion Sire in 1721. Strickland was a central character in one of early racing's greatest causes celebres, The Merlin Match. Many of the exact details, even the date and the correct names of the horses involved are unknown; almost all that is certain is that the match took place.

The race was a head-to-head match at Newmarket between Strickland's horse, called Merlin (or possibly Old Merlin or Ancaster Merlin or Little Merlin) and a horse belonging to Tregonwell Frampton the Royal trainer; it was seen as being a symbolic race between the champions of North and South, or of the Provinces and the racing establishment, and attracted widespread interest and heavy betting.

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