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THOMAS, Sir Edmund, 3rd Bt. (1712-67), of Wenvoe Castle, Glam.
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Family and Education
bap. 9 Apr. 1712, 1st s. of Sir Edmund Thomas, 2nd Bt., by Mary, da. of John Howe, M.P., of Stowell, Glos. educ. Westminster 1725; M. Temple 1728; Queen’s, Oxf. 1730. m. May 1740, Abigail, da. of Sir Thomas Webster, 1st Bt., of Battle Abbey, Suss., wid. of William Northey and mother of William Northey, 3s. suc. fa. 1723.
Offices Held
Groom of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales 1742-51; clerk of the household to the Princess Dowager 1756-7; jt. treasurer to the Princess 1757-61; ld. of Trade Mar. 1761-Apr. 1763; surveyor gen. of woods north and south of Trent 1763-d.
Biography
Thomas’s marriage to William Northey’s widow gained him influence in Wiltshire, for which his uncle John Howe, afterwards Lord Chedworth, sat till 1741. His return, with Edward Bayntun Rolt, for Chippenham in that year led to the unsuccessful petition by the defeated court party candidates on which Walpole resigned.1 Taken into the Prince’s service, he at first supported the new Administration, speaking in favour of the motion for continuing British troops in Flanders on 11 Jan. 1744.2 In 1747 he followed Frederick into opposition, supporting the 2nd Lord Egmont’s motion of 7 Feb. 1749 for laying before the House copies of all proposals made for peace with France between 1744 and 1747.
In Egmont’s list of future office holders on Frederick’s accession Thomas is variously placed as a lord of the Admiralty, second secretary to the Admiralty, groom of the bedchamber with £800 p.a., and auditor to the Queen or Prince. On Frederick’s death in 1751 Sir Thomas Webster wrote to Newcastle asking that Thomas, Webster’s son-in-law, should be given a place with Prince George,3 but the King had already shown his disfavour to this.4 However, he wrote shortly afterwards to his friend Sir John Cust:
[I] have (between friends) all the reason in the world to be satisfied of [H.] R. H. [’s] good and gracious intentions towards me, from which I have reason to hope for the earliest good effects.5
Later in the year he applied for an interview with Newcastle6 but he was not given a place till 1756, when he was out of Parliament. He died 10 Oct. 1767.
Ref Volumes: 1715-1754
Notes
- 1. See BAYNTUN ROLT and CHIPPENHAM
- 2. Yorke’s parl. jnl. Parl. Hist. xiii. 393.
- 3. Webster to Newcastle, 12 Apr. 1751, Add. 32724, f.231.
- 4. Newcastle to Pelham, 10 Apr. 1751, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.
- 5. Thomas to Cust, 11 June 1751, Recs. Cust Fam. (ser. 3), p. 143
- 6. Thomas to Newcastle, 24 Nov. 1751, Add. 32725, f.435.