Thomas Coventry, 1st Earl of Coventry
Thomas Coventry, 1st Earl of Coventry (ca. 1629 – 15 July 1699), known as the Hon. Thomas Coventry from 1640 to 1687 and as the Lord Coventry from 1687 to 1697, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1660 and 1687 when he succeeded to the peerage..
Coventry was the younger son of Thomas Coventry, 2nd Baron Coventry, and his wife Mary (née Craven). Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, was his grandfather. In April 1660, he was elected Member of Parliament for Droitwich in the Convention Parliament. He was elected MP for Camelford in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament. In 1681 he was elected MP for Warwick and was re-elected in 1685. He succeeded his nephew as fifth Baron Coventry in 1687 and entered the House of Lords. In 1697 he was made Viscount Deerhurst, of the hundred of Deerhurst in the County of Gloucester, and Earl of Coventry.[1]
Lord Coventry married firstly Winifred, daughter of Pierce Edgcumbe, in circa 1660. She died in 1694. He married secondly Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Grimes, in 1695. He died in July 1699 and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son from his first marriage, Thomas. Lady Coventry later remarried and died in 1724.[1]
References
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
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