Equestrian statue of William III, London

M.P., dated 1724, but nothing was done to progress the plan for a further seventy years. A design for the monument was drawn up in 1794 by Bacon's father, John Bacon Senior, but this was not executed and the commission passed to Bacon Jr., under whose direction the statue was finally erected in 1808. The statue is a Grade I listed structure

Mary,^[2] James's daughter, until her death in 1694, and then solely until his own death in 1702.^[3] In 1697 the first proposal had been made to erect a statue in the king's honour in St James's Square, home to many of his strongest supporters.^[4] Nothing was done, however, and two further attempts to revive the plan, in 1710 and 1721, also failed.^[4] In 1724, a member of Parliament and Crown official, Samuel Travers, left a bequest in his will to fund the construction "in St. James's Square or on Cheapside Conduit an equestrian statue in brass to the glorious memory of my master William the Third".^[4] Nevertheless, it was a further seventy years before the commission to design the statue was granted to John Bacon Sr., then England's most notable sculptor, in 1794.^[4] Bacon Sr. died before the commission could be executed, and the final design and construction was undertaken in 1808 by his son, John Bacon Jr.^[1] The statue was originally sited in the middle of an octagonal pool, but this was drained in the 19th century.^[5]

Hampton Court, leading to the king's death from complications of pneumonia.^[8] Panels on either side of the plinth carry inscriptions in bronze lettering, the first reading GVLIELMVS III and the second I. BACON, IVNR. SCVLPTR. 1807.^[4]