Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1673–1733)

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley FRS (8 November 1673 – 22 January 1733) was the eldest son of Thomas Foley (c. 1641–1701) and inherited the Great Witley estate on his father's death. He was Member of Parliament for Stafford from 1694 until his elevation to the peerage in 1712, as one of 12 peers created on the recommendation of the Lord Treasurer, Robert Harley Earl of Oxford, to give him a majority in the House of Lords.

Business

When the lease of ironworks at Wilden and Shelsley Walsh expired in 1708, he took them in hand and they were operated as an estate enterprise by him and successive owners of the estate until 1776.^[1]

Family

Thomas Foley married Mary Strode with whom he fathered seven children, five of them predeceasing their parents. His only surviving son was Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley, on whose death the title became extinct, while the estates devolved upon his distant cousin Thomas Foley of Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, for whom the title was revived in 1776.

References

Stuart Handley, 'Foley, Thomas, first Baron Foley (1673–1733)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 2 March 2008
Burkes Peerage.

^ The evidence for this is principally that he and his successors purchased pig iron from the blast furnaces of others, and their names thus appear in the furnace accounts.

Parliament of England
Preceded by John Chetwynd Jonathan Cope	Member of Parliament for Stafford 1694–1712 With: John Chetwynd 1694–1695, 1701, 1702 Philip Foley 1695–1701 John Pershall 1701–1702 Walter Chetwynd 1702–1707	Succeeded by Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Edward Harley Charles Cocks	Member of Parliament for Droitwich 1698–1699 With: Charles Cocks	Succeeded by Charles Cocks Thomas Foley
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Parliament of England	Member of Parliament for Stafford 1707–1712 With: Walter Chetwynd 1707–1711 Henry Vernon 1711–1712	Succeeded by Henry Vernon Walter Chetwynd
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Baron Foley 1st creation 1712–1733	Succeeded by Thomas Foley

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[1] The evidence for this is principally that he and his successors purchased pig iron from the blast furnaces of others, and their names thus appear in the furnace accounts.

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