Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Madocks, William Alexander
MADOCKS, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1774–1828), philanthropist, born in 1774, was the third son of John Madocks of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and of Fron Yw in Denbighshire, an eminent chancery barrister, who was M.P. for the borough of Westbury in Wiltshire (1786–90). William matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 1 March 1790, proceeded B.A. in 1793, and M.A. in 1799, and was a fellow of All Souls' College 1794–1818 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. p. 901). He first settled at Dolmelynllyn, near Dolgelly, but purchased in 1798 the estate of Tan-yr-Allt, adjoining Penmorfa marsh in Carnarvonshire; here he commenced about 1800 to bank out the sea, and succeeded in recovering or converting into dry land about two thousand acres which previously formed the marsh. In 1807 he obtained a grant from the crown, confirmed by act of parliament, vesting in him and his heirs all the sands known as Traeth Mawr in the estuary close to his residence, which was then washed by the sea (see engraving in ‘European Magazine,’ liii. 129), and extending from Pont Aberglaslyn to Gêst point. He then constructed across Traeth Mawr an embankment nearly a mile in length, which shut out the sea, and was the means of reclaiming nearly three thousand more acres of land. A road was also constructed along the embankment, and it forms the line of communication between the counties of Carnarvon and Merioneth. The work was completed in 1811, at an expense of more than 100,000l. The town of Tremadoc, so called after its founder, with a neat Gothic church and other public buildings, was built by Madocks on Penmorfa at his own expense. Madocks sat in parliament for Boston in Lincolnshire from 1802 until 1820, when he became M.P. for Chippenham. He took an active part in politics on the whig side, and on 11 May 1809 moved an impeachment of Lord Castlereagh and of Spencer Perceval for bribery at an election (Cobbett, Parl. Debates, xiv. 380–92, 486–527). He also seconded, on 15 June 1809, Sir Francis Burdett's plan of parliamentary reform (ib. xiv. 1056). He became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and retired to the continent, where he died, in Paris, in September 1828. He married in 1818 Mrs. Gwynn of Tregunter, Breconshire, by whom he had one daughter, who survived him.
Madocks is the author of a little dramatic dialogue, called ‘The Amateur Actor and the Hair Dresser,’ published in the ‘European Magazine,’ liii. 215–16.
[Gent. Mag. 1809, ii. 685; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, pp. 305–6; see also Y Gestiana, a local history of Portmadoc (1892), pp. 68, 69, which contains a portrait of Madocks speaking in the House of Commons.]