He was the son of William Lemon and Anne Willyams of Carnanton House and the grandson of William Lemon (March 25^th), who acquired the family estate at Carclew in 1749. Lemon’s  younger brother, John (1754 – 1814) was, briefly, Member of Parliament for Saltash and then Truro.  His sister, Anne, married John Buller, MP for West Looe who was the brother of Charles Buller (June 9^th).

Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, Lemon followed university with the Grand Tour of Europe, the tradition for wealthy young gentlemen.  Lemon married Jane Buller, daughter of yet another Member of Parliament, James Buller, with whom he had twelve children.  One of his daughters, Harriet, married Sir Francis Basset, 1^st Baron de Dunstanville and Basset (August 9^st) in 1824.

Although Sir William Lemon was a Member of Parliament for over half a century (Penryn, 1770 – 1774 and then the County of Cornwall, 1774 – 1824), he only actually faced one electoral contest; a stunning indictment of the corruption and patronage of the electoral system which was addressed, in part at least, with the Reform Act of 1832. Whilst nominally independent, he consistently voted against measures that would adversely affect the commercial interests of the populace of the county, and his speeches and voting record demonstrate his Whig tendencies.  His popularity was such that, after his death (on this day in 1824) he was described as ‘A quiet and gentlemanly old man, faithful to his King without servility — attached to those people without democracy; open and unaffected, candid, courteous and benevolent.’

Today, he is still remembered with the naming of what is commonly regarded as one of the most beautiful Regency terraces outside of Bath, Lemon Street in Truro (pictured left in Edwardian times).

One of his loves was horticulture, which he inherited from his father, and he spent much time developing the Carclew Estate gardens.  Sir William Lemon established systematically planned gardens at Carclew and is credited responsible for introducing many exotic plants to Cornwall, including camellias.  Many of these came from the Caribbean, notably Cuba, and Lemon’s publicising their origin did much for the economy of the region, explaining the, otherwise, inexplicable and extremely surprising fact that Cuba commemorated a Cornishman on a stamp in 1972 (above left).