William Beckford inherited a Jamaican sugar fortune at 10, built Fonthill Abbey, and sold it before its tower fell

William Thomas Beckford's family fortune came from three generations of sugar planters in Jamaica. His father, William Beckford, bought Fonthill in Wiltshire in 1744 or 1745 for £32,000. The son inherited a fortune put at £1 million when his father died; contemporaries estimated his income at £100,000 a year, biographers at about half that^†. In autumn 1784 he was accused of sexual misconduct with the young son and heir of Viscount Courtenay. It was never proved, and by mid-1785 he had left England with his wife and infant daughter. From about 1798 he built Fonthill Abbey with the architect James Wyatt, a Gothic house with a tower about 90 metres high. The tower collapsed and was rebuilt. One account puts the cost at about £273,000 over 18 years. After losing two Jamaican plantations in a legal action, and heavily in debt, he put Fonthill up for sale in 1822. The arms dealer John Farquhar bought the abbey, most of its contents and the estate. In 1825 the tower fell again and wrecked the west wing. Beckford moved to Lansdown Hill near Bath and died there in 1844. Most of Fonthill Abbey was demolished around 1845. A short tower and part of the north wing remain in private ownership, listed in 1966.