William Burke (writer)

William Burke (1728 or 1730–1798) was an English pamphleteer, official, and politician. He was one of the supposed authors of Junius's Letters.

William Burke, the son of barrister John Burke and only very questionably a kinsman of Edmund Burke, called though "cousin", was born in London. He was admitted to Westminster School in 1743, and elected to Christ Church, Oxford in 1747. He contributed a copy of elegiacs to the university collection on the death of the Prince of Wales in 1751, and took the degree of B.C.L. in 1755. The two kinsmen were travelling companions in 1752, worked together on the Account of the European Settlements in America, which seems to have been written by W. Burke, and joined in befriending Emin the Armenian.

In 1763 Burke appeared as the friend of Ralph Verney, 2nd Earl Verney, and a confidential mediator between him and George Grenville. He was under-secretary to Henry Seymour Conway, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and the following year was moved into the northern department. On the downfall of the Rockingham ministry Burke resigned his office, which brought him £1,000 a year.

He and Edmund Burke had befriended James Barry, a Cork painter, and sent him to Italy at their expense to study, and in a letter written to Barry in 1766 Burke says that their affairs—evidently speaking of his kinsmen Edmund and Richard—were so "well arranged" that they were not uneasy at the prospect of a change in the ministry which would entail loss of place.

Burke owed his return to parliament as member for Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, on 16 June 1766, to his friendship with Lord Verney, who seems to have been a partner in speculations. In in March 1768 Robert Brudenell was returned in his place, but, as the latter chose another constituency, Burke regained his seat in the following May, and held it until the dissolution in September 1774. Burke did not take a prominent part in the debates of the house. "As an orator", Horace Walpole says, "he had neither manner nor talents, and yet wanted little of his cousin's presumption". He was pushy and well acquainted with the leaders of the whig party, though generally disliked by them. He lived much with his cousin Edmund, first in Queen Anne Street and afterwards at Gregories.

...
Wikipedia