The Children of Adam and Eve

By the time he came of age, William had family connections with all three of the great chartered commercial companies of the City of London in the eighteenth century, The Bank of England, The South Sea Company and The East India Company; withseveral of the principal insurance companies; with the House of Commons; and with the connecting world of government borrowing and contracting.

Sir William inherited his Baronetcy and Knepp Castle Estate from his father-in-law, Sir Charles Raymond, in 1789. He inherited Foxgrove Farm from his mother in the same year and bought The Deepdene in 1791. He later sold Foxgrove Farm to hisnephew, Sir Peter Burrell.

His collection of antiques (including nine super-folio volumes of paintings by Samuel Heironymus Grimm and James Lambert - commissioned for his incomplete works on the history of Sussex) and a transcript relating to Danny Manor, can be seen atthe British Museum.