Family and Education

b. c.1645, 1st s. of William Andrew of Great Addington.  educ. ?Emmanuel, Camb. 1662; M. Temple 1675.  m. 1 Mar. 1666, Anne (d. 1678), da. of Richard Kinnesman of Broughton, Northants., 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 2da. (1 d.v.p.).  suc. uncle Robert Andrew† at Harleston 1674; fa. 1675.1

Offices Held

Commr. for rebuilding of Northampton 1675; sheriff, Northants. 1687–8, Mar.–Nov. 1689; steward, honor of Higham Ferrers 1701–2; receiver Apr.–June 1702.2

Biography

Thomas Andrew of Harleston should not be confused with a contemporary of the same name who flourished successfully in London as a merchant. After inactive service in the Convention, none of Andrew’s subsequent ten years in Parliament was any busier, and all that can be traced are his fairly consistent political leanings. Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†) marked him as a Whig in October 1690, and Robert Harley counted him a member of the Country party in around April 1691. By the spring of 1693 he was noted by Grascome as a Court supporter, an attribution confirmed in a further list of government supporters of 1694–5. Returned again for Higham Ferrers in 1695, he was predicted in January 1696 as likely to support the administration over the proposed council of trade, and at the end of the following month signed the Association. Late in March he voted for fixing the price of guineas at 22s., and on 25 Nov. for the attainder of Sir John Fenwick†. On 26 May 1698 he was given leave, possibly to allow him to prepare for the July election, but if this was his intention, he appears later to have subsequently withdrawn rather than stand a poll against a Tory rival, Thomas Ekins*. He was classed retrospectively as a supporter of the Court party in a post-electoral listing compiled in around September.

In the election of January 1701 Andrew stood unsuccessfully against Ekins at Higham Ferrers, but by the time his petition against Ekins had been presented, he had already secured the Northampton seat at a by-election towards the end of February. Returned again for Northampton in November, Andrew was considered a ‘gain’ for the Whigs in Lord Spencer’s (Charles*) annotations on a list of the new Parliament. In April 1702 he was appointed to the receivership of Higham Ferrers in the duchy of Lancaster following the death of Thomas Ekins, the previous holder, but shortly before the summer election was dismissed with other Whig officials of the Duchy. Just after his appointment he had himself been criticized by Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Bt.*, one of Northamptonshire’s leading Tories, for dismissing a subordinate official ‘for no other reason but for voting honestly’. He played no part in the subsequent contest, and may thereafter have retired altogether from active politics. At the beginning of 1705 his household seems to have been afflicted with sickness: a daughter was close to death and he was himself ‘very ill’. He none the less lived on until 1722, his burial at Harleston occurring on 19 Oct.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Andrew A. Hanham

Notes

• 1. Baker, Northampton, i. 168; J. Isham, Par. Reg. Extracts, 10; PCC 21 Richmond.
• 2. HMC Lords, i. 187; Somerville, Duchy of Lancaster Official Lists, 192, 194.
• 3. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xcii), 4–5; Northants. Past and Present, vi. 30, 262; Baker, i. 168.