William Coningham was a British Liberal politician and art collector.
Background
Born in Penzance, he was the son of the Review Robert Coningham, a clergyman from County Londonderry, and his wife Louisa née Capper. Louisa was the daughter of an officer in the East India Company Army, and the author of philosophical and poetical works.
Education
Eton College; Trinity College.
Career
William was the Coninghams" only child to survive infancy. Following education at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, Coningham obtained a commission in the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons in 1834, but bought himself out in 1836. He was subsequently to edit and publish these as Twelve Letters in 1851.
Coningham built up a large art collection, principally the work of Italian Old Masters.
These included two panels of the Adoring Saints by Lorenzo Monaco, presented to the National Gallery, London in 1848. Other works included Portrait of a Woman by Francesco Montemezzano (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Tarquin and Lucretia by Titian (now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).
His collection of drawings is now widely scattered with examples in Princeton University Art Museum and elsewhere, but a group are in the British Museum. The art historian Francis Haskell judged him "an exceptionally cultivated man" and "one of the most successful and discriminating.. collectors of Old Masters in the nineteenth century".
A Liberal in politics, he was a supporter of Lord Palmerston and in favour of the extension of suffrage and the secret ballot.
By 1847 he was living in Kemptown, Brighton and was chosen to contest the parliamentary constituency of Brighton at the general election of that year. He failed to be elected and at the next election in 1852 he stood at Westminster, again without success. He held the seat at the 1859 general election.
By late 1863 it became apparent that Coningham"s health was deteriorating.
In January of the next year he announced his immediate retirement from the Commons. By 1868 his health had recovered and he attempted to regain his parliamentary seat at Brighton, standing as one of three Liberal candidates for the two seats in the constituency, but without success.
He died at his Brighton residence in 1884, aged 69.
Membership
17th United Kingdom Parliament. 18th United Kingdom Parliament.