Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow
Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow (27 November 1679 – 5 June 1740) was a British politician and landowner who commissioned the building of Clandon Park in the 1730s. [1]
He was born the only surviving son of Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow and became 2nd Baron Onslow on the death of his father in 1717.[2]
Political career
He represented a continuous succession of constituencies in the Parliament of England and Great Britain. He first entered Parliament in 1702, aged 22 or 23, as the MP for Gatton, Surrey, an underpopulated rural borough that had once had a market in the medieval period. He was then returned in 1705 to represent the larger settlement of Chichester, West Sussex, followed by Bletchingley (1708–1715) and finally the county seat of Surrey (1715–1717), which then included much of today's Greater London including, for example, Battersea and Lambeth.
He was a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer from 1718 to his death.
Personal finances and family life
As Lord Onslow he was a leading participant in an insurance business known as Onslow's Insurance or Onslow's Bubble, which secured incorporation under the Bubble Act as Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation.[2]
The family seat was Clandon Park, East and West Clandon, Surrey the centrepiece of which, a National Trust mansion and gardens was for the most part commissioned by him.
From this period until the early 20th century the senior branch of the family owned many tens of square miles of farmland scattered across many villages in Surrey from which they derived an income.[3]
He married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of John Knight, a merchant of Jamaica. He had one son, Richard, who succeeded him on his death in 1740.
References
- ↑ "ONSLOW, Thomas (1679-1740), of Clandon, Surr.". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- 1 2 W. R. Scott, The Constitution and Finance of ... Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (Cambridge University Press, 1911) III, 396-409.
- ↑ H.E. Malden (editor) (who also details their ownership in many others such as the parishes of Merrow and Alford) (1911). "Parishes: West Clandon". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research (a University of Portsmouth joint project). Retrieved 1 February 2014.