(1747 - 1811), o s. of Sir Everard Fawkener, Kt., of Wandsworth; m. 1784 Georgiana Poyntz; env.extra. Lisbon 1786 - 7.
1768 Florence (Oct.)
1774 Turin (Feb.), Milan, Naples (Apr.)
1775 - 6 Rome (Nov. - Dec. 1775), Florence (by 1 Jun. 1776) [Calais by Jun. 1776]
He was probably the Mr Fawkener who arrived in Florence in October 1768.1
In January 1774, on their way to Italy, William Augustus Fawkener and his brother Everard stopped at Ferney to visit Voltaire, who had been a close friend of their father's. He greeted them warmly; 'Mon Dieu! que je me trouve heureux de me voir entre deux Falkeners!'2. Lady Mary Coke noticed their passage through Turin to Milan, and frowned on their alleged visit to the Duke of Cumberland,3 after whose predecessor ('Butcher' Cumberland) William had been named. At Naples in April the brothers were shown the regiment of Liparotes by the King of Sicily.4 In August/ September Fawkener was planning to return to Paris, where Madame du Deffand considered him 'parfaitment aimable, sans nul travers, sans nul inconvenient'.5
The 'Forcherr' in Florence on 26 February 1774 was possibly one of the brothers.6 The Italian correspondence of Ozias Humphry refers in 1775 to 'a young man' who had been making copies for Mr Fawkener (undated draft letter). Humphry had painted both Mrs Bouverie's brothers, 'Mr Fawkener and Mr Everard Fawkener' and had sent them to England 'unfinished' (draft letter of 1775); Mrs Bouverie acknowledged them on 18 December 1775, saying she was well pleased.7
William was reported to be in Florence with the 8th Duke of Hamilton on 1 June 1776,6 and may be identified therefore as the 'Fawkener' who arrived in Rome in November 1775 and the 'Fawkner' playing cards with the Duke of Hamilton, and others in Rome in December.8 By the end of June 1776 he was at Calais, 'returning from Italy to London'.9 On 1 May 1787 Fawkener (then on a special diplomatic mission in Lisbon) was appointed envoy extraordinary to the Tuscan Court in succession to Horace Mann, but there is no evidence that he then came to Florence.(10)
1. Wal.Corr., 23:64. 2. Voltaire, no.128. 3. Coke Letters, 4:308. 4. SP 93/29 (Hamilton, 26 Apr. 1774). 5. Wal.Corr. 5:435. 6. Gazz.Tosc. 7. Humphry corr.MSS, hu/2/23, 26, 29. 8. Home letter bk.MSS (22 Nov., 19 Dec. 1775). 9. Wal. Corr., 32:299. 10. Ibid., 25:675 - 6.