Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow

Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow (27 November 1679 5 June 1740), of West Clandon, Surrey, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1702 and 1717. He commissioned the building of Clandon Park House in the 1730s.

Thomas Onslow, 2nd Earl of Onslow

Early life

Onslow was the only surviving son of Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow. He was educated at Eton College from 1691 to 1693, and the travelled abroad in Holland and France from 1697 to 1698. He married Elizabeth Knight, the daughter of John Knight, a merchant of Jamaica, and niece of Colonel Charles Knight, and was heir to both their fortunes.[1]

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 awarded LL.D at Cambridge Univiversity in 1717 and became 2nd Baron Onslow on the death of his father in 1717. He was a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer from 1718 to his death[2]

Personal finances and family life

Clandon Park House was transformed from a large manor house to a lavish English country house by this Lord Onslow, but the 3rd Lord Onslow had its interiors finished. It features a two-storey Marble Hall and marble chimney and other pieces by the Flemish sculptor Michael Rysbrack, but the interior was gutted by fire in 2015.

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.[3]

The Onslow family seat remains Clandon Park, East and West Clandon, Surrey.

Clandon Park House and its 7-acre garden, was gifted to the Nation in 1956, a National Trust and this mansion and gardens was for the most part commissioned by him.

The senior branch of the Onslow family continue to own and manage their agricultural business and the Clandon Park parkland to this day. However, in the 18th and 19th century the family owned several thousand acres of farmland scattered across many villages in Surrey from which they derived an income.[4]

According to research carried out under University College London's Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, Clandon House was built by Onslow possibly as a result of his wife's slavery-derived fortune.[5] The slave plantation which Elizabeth inherited was her uncle Charles' Whitehall Plantation in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica.[6]

He had one son, Richard, who succeeded him on his death in 1740.

References

  1. "ONSLOW, Thomas (1679-1740), of West Clandon, Surr". History of Parliament Online (1690-1715). Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  2. "ONSLOW, Thomas (1679-1740), of Clandon, Surr". History of Parliament Online (1715-1754. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  3. W. R. Scott, The Constitution and Finance of ... Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (Cambridge University Press, 1911) III, 396-409.
  4. 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.
  5. "Thomas 2nd Lord Onslow". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  6. "Charles Knight". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Thomas Turgis
Maurice Thompson
Member of Parliament for Gatton
1702–1705
With: Maurice Thompson
Succeeded by
Sir George Newland
Paul Docminique
Preceded by
William Elson
Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt
Member of Parliament for Chichester
1705–1707
With: Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt
Succeeded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Parliament of England
Member of Parliament for Chichester
1707–1708
With: Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt
Succeeded by
Thomas Carr
Sir Richard Farington, Bt
Preceded by
George Woodroffe
John Fulham
Member of Parliament for Haslemere
1708
With: Theophilus Oglethorpe
Succeeded by
Theophilus Oglethorpe
Sir Nicholas Carew
Preceded by
John Ward
George Evelyn
Member of Parliament for Bletchingley
1708–1715
With: George Evelyn
Succeeded by
George Evelyn
Sir William Clayton
Preceded by
Theophilus Oglethorpe
Sir John Clerke, Bt
Member of Parliament for Haslemere
1713–1714
With: George Vernon
Succeeded by
George Vernon
Sir Nicholas Carew
Preceded by
Lord Guernsey
Sir Richard Onslow, Bt
Member of Parliament for Surrey
1715–1717
With: Lord Guernsey
Succeeded by
Lord Guernsey
Denzil Onslow
Political offices
Preceded by
Unknown
Out-Ranger of Windsor Forest
1715–1717
Succeeded by
Denzil Onslow
Preceded by
Richard Hampden
Teller of the Exchequer
1718–1741
Succeeded by
Horatio Walpole
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Lord Onslow
Lord Lieutenant of Surrey
1717–1740
Succeeded by
The Lord Onslow
Preceded by
The Earl of Berkeley
Custos Rotulorum of Surrey
1737–1740
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Richard Onslow
Baron Onslow
1717–1740
Succeeded by
Richard Onslow

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