Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (8 August 1716 – 18 November 1777), was a British landowner and politician. Foley was the son of Thomas Foley MP and his wife Hester (née Andrews) and was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

(1724–732) and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

(from 1732). The Foley family descended from the prominent ironmaster Thomas Foley. He succeeded his father in 1749, inheriting the Stoke Edith estate in Herefordshire. Foley was also the cousin, namesake and heir of Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (a title which became extinct on the latter's death in 1766), thus also inheriting

Witley Court Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the archit ...

and the extensive

Great Witley Great Witley is a village and civil parish (with Hillhampton), in the Malvern Hills District in the northwest of the county of Worcestershire, England. It is situated around ten miles to the north west of the city of Worcester. History There ...

estate. This included ironworks at Wilden and

Shelsley Walsh Shelsley Walsh is a small village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, on the western side of the River Teme. For administrative purposes it is presently located in the Teme Valley ward of the county’s Malvern Hills district. In the 2011 ...

, which were leased about at the end of his life. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

for

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. The ...

in 1741, a constituency he represented until 1746 and again from 1754 to 1768, followed by election to represent

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

between 1768 and 1776. The latter year the title previously held by his cousin was revived when Foley was raised to the peerage as Baron Foley of Kidderminster in the County of Worcester. Lord Foley married Grace (d. 1769), daughter of

George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne PC (9 March 1666 – 29 January 1735), of Stowe, Cornwall, was an English Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1702 until 1712, when he was raised to the peerage as Bar ...

, in 1740. They had seven children: * Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1742–1793), to whose family he devised the Great Witley estate * Grace Foley (1 January 1743 – 9 January 1813), married

James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, KG, KP, PC (I) (23 August 1730 – 6 February 1798), was an Anglo-Irish peer, styled Viscount Limerick from 1756 to 1758. Lord Clanbrassil was the son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, and L ...

, on 21 May 1774 * Edward Foley (1747–1803), to whose family he devised his paternal Stoke Edith estate * Andrew Foley (c. 1748–1816), to whose family he devised the

Newent Newent (; originally called "Noent") is a market town and civil parish about 10½ miles (17 km) north-west of Gloucester, England. Its population was 5,073 at the 2001 census, rising to 5,207 in 2011, The population was 6,777 at the 2021 Census. ...

estate * Anne Foley (d. 9 December 1794), married

Sir Edward Winnington, 2nd Baronet Sir Edward Winnington, 2nd Baronet (14 November 1749 – 9 January 1805), of Stanford Court, Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, was a British baronet and politician. He was the eldest son of Sir Edward Winnington, 1st Baronet. His father arran ...

on 12 September 1776 * Elizabeth Foley (bef. 1769 – 13 October 1776) * Mary Foley (d. December 1844), married Richard Clerk Foley died in November 1777, aged 61. He was succeeded in the barony by the eldest son, Thomas.

References

* Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. * Will of 1st Lord Foley
www.thepeerage.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Thomas Foley (1716-1777), 1st Baron 1716 births 1777 deaths People from Malvern Hills District People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Peers of Great Britain created by George III Politicians from Worcestershire Politics of Herefordshire English ironmasters 18th-century English businesspeople Foley, Thomas British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1754–1761 British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780

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 ...