Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth (21 May 1710 – 1751) of

Longleat House Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wilts ...

in Wiltshire was an English peer, descended from Sir John Thynne (c.1515-1580) builder of Longleat.

Origins

He was born on 21 May 1710, the son of Thomas Thynne (d.1710) by his wife Lady Mary Villiers.''Burke's Peerage and Baronetage'', (106th edition, 1999), vol. 1, p. 212 His father died a month before Thomas was born.

Inheritance

On 28 July 1714, aged four, on the death of his great uncle

Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth (1640 – 28 July 1714) was a British peer in the peerage of England. Biography He was born the son of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne of Caus Castle, Shropshire, and Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and his wife, ...

, he inherited

and its great estates and succeeded to the baronetcy of Thynne, of Kempsford,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, and (by special remainder) to the titles of Baron Thynne of

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church o ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and Viscount Weymouth, of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

Career

In 1733 he was appointed High Steward of Tamworth and was also Grand Master of the

Premier Grand Lodge of England The organisation now known as the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded on 24 June 1717 as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Originally concerned with the practice of Freemasonry in London and Westminster, it soon became known as ...

from 1735 to 1736. Between 4 December 1739 and 1751, he held the royal offices of Keeper of Hyde Park, Keeper of the Mall, and Ranger of

St. James's Park St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous ch ...

, all in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West En ...

. Shortly after his Hyde Park appointment, he began the construction of the Serpentine Lakes at Longleat, apparently in imitation of Hyde Park's Serpentine.

Marriages and children

He married twice: *Firstly on 6 December 1726, to Lady Elizabeth Sackville (d.1729), a daughter of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. CarteretArms

*Secondly he married Lady Louisa Carteret (c.1712–1736), a daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville and a co-heiress of her childless brother Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl Granville (1721–1776). On her father's side she was a great-grand-daughter of

John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath PC, 29 August 1628 – 22 August 1701, was an English landowner who served in the Royalist army during the First English Civil War and was rewarded for his services after the 1660 Stuart Restoration with a titl ...

(1628–1701), and her father's first-cousin was William Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (1692–1711), on whose death the Earldom of Bath became extinct. The title of

Marquess of Bath Marquess of Bath is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1789 for Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth. The Marquess holds the subsidiary titles Baron Thynne, of Warminster in the County of Wiltshire, and Viscount Weymou ...

was later created for her eldest son in 1789 (see below), the title

Earl of Bath Earl of Bath was a title that was created five times in British history, three times in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is now extinct. Earls of Bath; First cre ...

being then unavailable as it had been recreated for a member of the Pulteney family. When Louisa died in childbirth, in her early twenties, her friend, Mrs Delany, wrote:"Her husband's ... loss is irreparable." During her illness, Mrs Delany had written that "my Lord Weymouth is like a madman". By Louisa Carteret he had two sons: ** Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath (1734–1796), eldest son and heir, created

in 1789. He inherited Longleat House and his father's vast estates. ** Henry Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret (1735–1826), created Baron Carteret (2nd creation) in 1784. As a second son under the system of primogeniture he had little expectation of a rich inheritance. However, in 1776, by

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

, he changed his name and arms to Carteret, in compliance with his inheritance from his childless uncle Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl Granville, 3rd Baron Carteret (1721–1776) (under the terms of the will of the latter's father John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, 2nd Baron Carteret (1690–1763),Victoria County History, Bedford, Volume 2, William Page (editor), 1908, pp.338-344, Parishes: Hawnes or Hayne

/ref> of his estates including Haynes, Bedfordshire, Hawnes Park (now

Haynes Park Haynes Park is a Georgian country house which stands in parkland at Haynes Church End, Bedfordshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. Originally known as Hawnes Park it was built c.1725 for John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, a prominen ...

), in Bedfordshire and

Stowe House Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on t ...

, Kilkhampton in Cornwall (the ancient seat of the Granvilles, Earls of Bath). He also succeeded him as

Bailiff of Jersey The Bailiff of Jersey () is the civic head of the Bailiwick of Jersey. In this role, he is not the head of government nor the head of state, but the chief justice of Jersey and presiding officer of Jersey's parliament, the States Assembly. The ...

, a post (for life) long held by heads of the Carteret family. In 1784 he was created Baron Carteret, of Hawnes, thus reviving his uncle's second title.

Death and burial

He died on 12 January 1750/51, at Horningsham, Wiltshire, and was buried there on 22 January.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weymouth, Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount 1710 births 1751 deaths 2 Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England Grand Masters of the Premier Grand Lodge of England

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...