Thomas Dummer (1739–1781) was an English Member of Parliament for Newport (Isle of Wight) (1765–1768), Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (1769–1774), Downton in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

(1774),

Wendover Wendover is a town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road along t ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

(1775–1780) and

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest (district), New Forest district of Hampshire, England. The town faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a Roll-on/roll-off, car ferry s ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

(1780–1781). Cranbury Park Hampshire Morris edited

Political career

Dummer was the son of

Thomas Lee Dummer Thomas Lee Dummer ( – 6 October 1765) was an English Member of Parliament for Southampton (1737–1741) and Newport (Isle of Wight) (1765–1768). Family Dummer's uncle, Edmund Dummer (1663–1724), was a lawyer who was appointed a Clerk ...

. On his father's death in October 1765, he succeeded him to the family estate at

Cranbury Park Cranbury Park is a stately home and country estate situated in the parish of Hursley, Winchester, England. It was formerly the home to Sir Isaac Newton and later to the Chamberlayne family, whose descendants continue to own and occupy the hous ...

near

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

as well as estates at

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

and Netley, near

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

and at Horninghold in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. He also took his father's parliamentary seat at Newport. In 1768, he lost his seat to

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

who was in the patronage of the influential Hans Stanley. In 1769, he became M.P. for nearby Yarmouth (1769–1774). Originally, the election was in favour of William Strode and Jervoise Clarke, but on petition the election was reversed in favour of Dummer and Major General the Hon. George Lane Parker. In the 1774 election, Dummer stood for election at Downton in

. He and Thomas Duncombe were initially declared the victors, but on petition it was decided that they had not been duly elected and their opponents, John Cooper and Sir Philip Hales, were declared elected in their place. The following year, he was elected to represent

before returning to Hampshire in 1780 as M.P. for

until his death in 1781. In May 1773, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Cranbury Park

On his father's death in 1765, Dummer inherited the family estate at

. In 1770, he purchased the City Cross (also known as the Buttercross) from the Corporation of

, intending to have it re-erected at Cranbury. When his workmen arrived to dismantle the cross, they were prevented from doing so by the people of the city, who "''organised a small riot''" and they were forced to abandon their task. The agreement with the city was cancelled and Dummer erected a

lath and plaster Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood (laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. T ...

facsimile, which stood in the park for about sixty years before it was destroyed by the weather. Undaunted by his failure to acquire the City Cross to grace the estate, Dummer turned his attention to the ruins of

Netley Abbey Netley Abbey is a ruined Late Middle Ages, late medieval monastery in the village of Netley near Southampton in Hampshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1239 as a house for monks of the austere Cistercian order. Despite royal patronage, Ne ...

, which he also owned, and moved the north transept of the abbey to Cranbury Park, where it can be still be seen as a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

in the gardens of the house (at ). The ruins comprise an arch, the base of a pillar, and a scaled-down gateway tower. The rear of the gateway has been made into a keeper's lodge, and is known to the village of

Otterbourne Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately south of Winchester and north of Southampton. At the 2011 census, its population was 1,539, and there were 626 dwellings. There are three public houses in the villag ...

as "the Castle" and is marked as such on the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map. Thomas Dummer died without heirs in 1781, leaving his property at Cranbury and Netley and also at Horninghold in

first to his widow, Harriet, daughter of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 6th Baronet of Parham, with reversion to his lifelong friend Thomas Chamberlayne. Harriet Dummer then married Thomas Chamberlayne, and after his death she married the artist Nathaniel Dance in 1790.George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 156. Dance, who was later to become Sir

Nathaniel Dance-Holland Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet (8 May 1735 – 15 October 1811) was an English painter and politician. Early life The third son of architect George Dance the Elder, Dance (he added the 'Holland' suffix later in life) studied art ...

, Bt., was the brother of George Dance, who had designed the present-day house at Cranbury, built in 1780.

References

External links

The Family of Dummer of British Origin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dummer, Thomas 1739 births 1781 deaths British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 Members of Parliament for the Isle of Wight Fellows of the Royal Society