Family and Education

b. 1686, 1st s. of Andrew Wilkinson of Boroughbridge Hall by Mary, da. of Richard Cholmley of Bramham, Yorks. educ. G. Inn 1703; Jesus, Camb. 1704. m. cos. Elizabeth, da. of Charles Wilkinson of Aldborough, s.p. suc. fa. 1711.

Offices Held

Jt. receiver-gen. of land tax for Yorks. Dur. and Northumb. Jan. 1718-d.

Biography

In 1654 Thomas Wilkinson’s family bought an estate in Boroughbridge, where they were among the principal burgage-holders. In the early eighteenth century they attached themselves to John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, and after his death in 1711 to his heir, Thomas Pelham, created Duke of Newcastle in 1715, whose property was contiguous to their own. Shortly before the general election of 1713 Pelham wrote to his Yorkshire estate agent, Thomas Wilkinson’s uncle, Charles Wilkinson:

As the interest at Boroughbridge entirely depends upon your nephew, I take for the greatest obligation the favour he does me, in letting me recommend one there, and shall always be ready to do all in my power to support his interest.1

Returned for Boroughbridge in 1715, Thomas voted for the septennial bill in 1716, vacating his seat in 1718 on being appointed to an office incompatible with membership of the House of Commons. He died the same year, leaving his property to his uncle Charles, who was also his father-in-law and the father of Andrew Wilkinson.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. T. Lawson-Tancred, Recs. of a Yorks. Manor, 190-1, 249-50.