Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1673–1733)

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley FRS (8 November 1673 – 22 January 1733) was the eldest son of Thomas Foley (c. 1641–1701) and inherited the Great Witley estate on his father's death. He was Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1694 until his elevation to the peerage in 1712, as one of 12 peers created on the recommendation of the Lord Treasurer, Robert Harley Earl of Oxford, to give him a majority in the House of Lords.

Business

When the lease of ironworks at Wilden and Shelsley Walsh expired in 1708, he took them in hand and they were operated as an estate enterprise by him and successive owners of the estate until 1776.[1]

Family

Thomas Foley married Mary Strode with whom he fathered seven children, five of them predeceasing their parents. His only surviving son was Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley, on whose death the title became extinct, while the estates devolved upon his distant cousin Thomas Foley of Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, for whom the title was revived in 1776.

References

  1. The evidence for this is principally that he and his successors purchased pig iron from the blast furnaces of others, and their names thus appear in the furnace accounts.
Parliament of England
Preceded by
John Chetwynd
Jonathan Cope
Member of Parliament for Stafford
1694–1712
With: John Chetwynd 1694–1695, 1701, 1702
Philip Foley 1695–1701
John Pershall 1701–1702
Walter Chetwynd 1702–1707
Succeeded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Edward Harley
Charles Cocks
Member of Parliament for Droitwich
1698–1699
With: Charles Cocks
Succeeded by
Charles Cocks
Thomas Foley
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Parliament of England
Member of Parliament for Stafford
1707–1712
With: Walter Chetwynd 1707–1711
Henry Vernon 1711–1712
Succeeded by
Henry Vernon
Walter Chetwynd
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation Baron Foley
1st creation
1712–1733
Succeeded by
Thomas Foley


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