Record

Authorised form of nameWay; Benjamin (1740 - 1808)
Dates1740 - 1808
Date of birthSeptember 1740
Place of deathChandos Street, Cavendish Square, London
Date of death22 August 1808
ActivityEducation:
DCL Oxon
Career:
MP for Bridport (1765-1768); High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire (1777); President of Guy's Hospital; Sub-Governor of the South Sea Company
Memberships:
FSA
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election05/12/1771
RelationshipsSon of Lewis Way FRS (1737)
OtherInfoThe South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt. To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the 'South Seas' and South America. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, and peaked in 1720 before suddenly collapsing to little above its original flotation price. The notorious economic bubble thus created, which ruined thousands of investors, became known as the South Sea Bubble.
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll
CodeNA7184
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1771/12Way, Benjamin: certificate of election to the Royal Society
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