KINASTON, William (?1682-1749), of Ruyton Hall, Salop.

William Kinaston was a member of a junior branch of the Shropshire Kynastons, who had been seated at Ruyton since the sixteenth century. A Whig and an active member of the Shrewsbury corporation, he is said by a political opponent to have

come in to be mayor by a writ of mandamus though he was neither rightly elected nor the senior alderman; he acted partially during his time and used such indirect means to compass his designs that his name became odious ... the corporation lost their grandeur; honour, honesty, and justice were expelled the house; tyranny and oppression ruled in their stead for many years,Salop Arch. Soc. Trans. (ser. 3), i. 219-221; (ser. 4), iv. 64.

a reference to the new bye-laws concerning the admission of freemen passed in his mayoralty, which eventually gave the Whigs control of the franchise.

On becoming a master in Chancery Kinaston gave Lord Chancellor Macclesfield a present of 1,500 guineas. When the state of the chancery suitors funds was investigated in 1724 he was found to have a deficit of over £26,900, but retained his office after giving security for the debts.Howell’s State Trials, xvi. 771, 1055, 1067, 1094, 1184. In 1734, shortly after becoming recorder of the borough, he was returned for Shrewsbury, voting with the Government. He had a reputation for meanness; after the 1747 election his fellow-member, Sir Richard Corbet, complained that he paid no part of its cost; and he was known as ‘heavy Billy, not from the weight of his purse, but the unwieldiness of his body’.Salop Arch. Soc. Trans. (ser. 4), iv. 64. He died 24 Feb. 1749.