Brigadier General Thomas Stanwix (1670 – 14 March 1725) was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

from 1702 to 1725. He served as

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territories, British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of ...

Career

Stanwix joined the Army and had become a

captain-lieutenant Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army. Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Fin ...

in Hasting's Foot Regiment by 1692.Thomas Stanwix at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> In March 1702 he was elected Member of Parliament for

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor for Carlisle in 1705 and found that his main challenge was stopping the smuggling across the border between England and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. In 1703, during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

, Stanwix was present at the Battle of Caia in Portugal. In 1711 he became

. Except from a personal perspective he was unsuccessful as a governor, as his main achievement was to become richer than when he arrived. Observers felt that he should have concentrated on encouraging the Dutch to leave so that the benefits of the

Capture of Gibraltar The capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance occurred between 1 and 4 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Penins ...

(in 1704) could be directed entirely in Britain's direction. Stanwick was tenacious as even when he was replaced by David Colyear he stayed on as lieutenant-governor for some months. In 1713 Stanwix returned to England and became Mayor of Carlisle for 1715 as well as Deputy Lieutenant of Cumberland, thereby increasing his influence in the Carlisle area. He was a Whig MP who strongly supported

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...

. He lost his seat in Carlisle in 1721 when seeking re-election on appointment to office, and instead became MP for Newport (Isle of Wight). He also became

Governor of Kingston-upon-Hull Below is a list of those who have held the office of Governor of Kingston upon Hull: Governors of Kingston upon Hull *1536: John Hallam *1546–1552: Sir Michael Stanhope (beheaded, 1552) *?-1639: Sir John Hotham, 1st Baronet *1639–1641: Sir ...

in 1721 until his death. In the 1722 general election he was defeated at Carlisle but was returned as MP for Yarmouth (Isle of Wight). Stanwix was also Governor of the

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is an Old soldiers' home, Old Soldiers' retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse — the ancient sense of the word "hospital" — by King Charles II of Eng ...

from 1714 until 1720. Stanwix died in 1725. He left his estates in Carlisle and Middlesex to his wife, and on her death to his nephew John Roos, on condition that he assumed the surname of Stanwix.

References

1670 births 1725 deaths British military personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession British MPs 1707–1708 British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 Deputy lieutenants of Cumberland Governors of Gibraltar Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Mayors of Carlisle, Cumbria English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 Suffolk Regiment officers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Carlisle Whig members of the Parliament of Great Britain {{England-mayor-stub