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Sir William Acton, 1st Baronet (1570 – 22 January 1651) was an English merchant and Royalist who was Lord Mayor of London in 1640.

Acton was the son of Richard Acton, a London merchant, and Margaret Dannell. He was apprenticed by the Merchant Taylor Company in 1593 and freed in 1601.^[1]^[2] On 12 February 1628, he was elected an alderman of the City of London for Aldersgate ward. That same year, he was Sheriff of London.^[3] He was created a baronet on 30 May 1629.^[2]

In 1640, Acton was due to be elected Lord Mayor of London but in an unprecedented vote he was passed over because of his strong Royalist views. Edmund Wright was voted in as the compromise candidate.^[4]

Acton married firstly Anne Bill, daughter of James Bill of Ashwell, Hertfordshire, and secondly Jane Johnson Bird, widow of Sir William Bird. Acton's daughter and sole heiress, Elizabeth, brought great wealth to the Whitmore family upon her marriage to Sir Thomas Whitmore, 1st Baronet. The baronetcy became extinct on Acton's death.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Complete Baronetage: English, Irish and Scottish, 1625-1649. W. Pollard & Company, Limited. 1902. p. 72. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
^ ^a ^b William Betham The baronetage of England Volume 2
^ 'Chronological list of aldermen: 1601-1650', The Aldermen of the City of London: Temp. Henry III - 1912 (1908), pp. 47-75. Date accessed: 16 July 2011
^ 'Appendix B: Sir Edmund Wright's election as Lord Mayor', Survey of London Monograph 13: Swakeleys, Ickenham (1933), pp. 39-42. Date accessed: 20 February 2013

Civic offices
Preceded by Henry Garraway	Lord Mayor of the City of London 1640	Succeeded by Edmund Wright
Baronetage of England
New title	Baronet of the City of London 1629–1651	Extinct