Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet

Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet (c. 1685 – 17 April 1747), of Thirkleby in Yorkshire, was an English Member of Parliament.

He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Frankland, 2nd Baronet and Elizabeth Russell (through whom he was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell), and entered Jesus College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1700. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father on 30 October 1726. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March, 1707.^[1]

He entered Parliament in 1708 as member for Harwich until 1713, and subsequently represented the family borough of Thirsk for more than thirty years until his death (1715–1747). From 1715 to 1722 he was also Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance, and from 1730 to 1742 served as one of the Lords of the Admiralty. He was also Commissioner of Revenue (Ireland) (1724–1728) and a Member of the Board of Trade (1728–1730).

Frankland married twice. His first wife was Dinah Topham, daughter of Francis Topham of Agelthorpe, by whom he had two daughters:

• Elizabeth (d. 1742), who married John Trevor of Trevallyn and Plasteg
• Dinah, Countess of Lichfield (1719–1779), who married The 3rd Earl of Lichfield

His second wife was Sarah Moseley (d. 1783), who was 40 years his junior.

He having no sons, the baronetcy passed to his nephew, Charles, son of his brother Henry Frankland, Governor of Bengal. his will, which left all his property to his second wife, was upset by the courts as being made under undue influence and while of unsound mind.

Notes

References

• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
• Frankland genealogy