Peter Beckford.

About Peter Beckford

Peter Beckford was a Jamaican politician, merchant and planter who served as speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica from 1707 to 1713, and again from 1716 to 1717. Beckford was the son of Colonel Peter Beckford, a merchant and militia officer who served as the acting lieutenant-governor of Jamaica in 1702. Beckford's father sent him to study in England, where he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and New College, Oxford before being called to the bar in 1695. Quickly returning to Jamaica, Beckford was appointed as the Receiver General of Jamaica in 1696. However, he fled the colony in 1697 after killing another official, but eventually returned after his father managed to get the case declared nolle prosequi.