DE GREY, Thomas (1680-1765), of Merton, Norf.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1708 - 1710
1715 - 1727

Family and Education

bap. 13 Aug. 1680, 1st surv. s. of William de Grey, M.P. Thetford 1685-7, by Elizabeth, da. and eventually coh. of Thomas Bedingfield of Darsham, Suff. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1697. m. by 1707, Elizabeth, da. of William Windham of Felbrigg, Norf., 2s. 2da.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1715 Thomas de Grey, whose family had been seated at Merton since the fourteenth century, was put up by Lord Townshend on the Whig interest for Norfolk, for which he was returned after a contest. In Parliament he voted against the septennial bill in 1716 and with the Townshend-Walpole opposition on Lord Cadogan in June 1717. He did not vote in the divisions on the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and the peerage bill in 1719. Shortly before the next general election he wrote to Townshend begging

to be discharged of a trust, which after seven years’ experience I am every day more convinced that I am of all persons the most unfit for. It has been my misfortune many times to differ in my opinion from all my friends, and it is another misfortune to me that I can enjoy no peace or quiet in my mind but in acting conformably to it and though your Lordship knowing this to be the only motive of it has been so good to allow me this liberty, yet I have never made use of it under the greatest uneasiness and reluctance, as what must appear to others very ungrateful and unbecoming in one who sits there under the circumstances I do.1

In the event he was re-elected unopposed but did not stand again. He died December 1765.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Norwich Central City Lib. N.R.S. 13688, 28 D4.