William Wilkinson (diplomat)

William Wilkinson (died 1836) was an Englishman appointed as the Levant Company's representative in Bucharest in October 1813;[1][2][3] His agency was terminated in 1816.[4] Despite support for his candidacy from Prince Ioan Caragea, the then hospodar of Wallachia, Wilkinson failed in his attempt to secure appointment as British Consul in Bucharest in 1818.[1] He wrote a book An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia: With Various Political Observations Relating to Them (1820).[5] It was one of the books on which Bram Stoker took notes before writing Dracula, and the Romanian name Dracula was taken from it.[6][7]

Wilkinson was later posted to Syros, in 1829, by the Levant Company.[8] He died in Paris on 23 August 1836.[9]

  1. ^ a b Florescu, Radu R. (2021), The Struggle Against Russia in the Romanian Principalities, Centre for Romanian Studies, pp. 94 & 95, ISBN 9781592110261
  2. ^ Review. - Wilkinson's Wallachia and Moldavia, The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 129, 1821 [1]
  3. ^ W. G. East (30 June 2011). The Union of Moldavia and Wallachia, 1859: An Episode in Diplomatic History. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-107-60131-4.
  4. ^ Alfred C. Wood (13 May 2013). A History of the Levant Company. Routledge. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-136-23734-8.
  5. ^ An account of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia - William Wilkinson, Longman, 1820 (Google Free eBook)
  6. ^ Vesna Goldsworthy (1998). Inventing Ruritania: The Imperialism of the Imagination. Yale University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-300-07312-6.
  7. ^ Mark Jenkins (2010). Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend. National Geographic. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-4262-0607-8.
  8. ^ Lucia Patrizio Gunning (2009). The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Museum. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7546-6023-1.
  9. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. R. Newton. 1837. p. 669.