Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1716–1777)

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (8 August 1716 – 18 November 1777) was a British politician.

Foley was the son of Thomas Foley and his wife Hester (née Andrews), and the cousin, namesake and heir of Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (a title which became extinct on his death in 1766), thus acquiring Witley Court and the extensive Great Witley estate. This included ironworks at Wilden and Shelsley Walsh, which were leased about at the end of his life. The Foley family descended from the prominent ironmaster Thomas Foley.

Foley was elected to the House of Commons for Droitwich in 1741, a constituency he represented until 1746 and again from 1754 to 1768, and then sat for Herefordshire between 1768 and 1776. The latter year the title held by his cousin was revived when Foley was raised to the peerage as Baron Foley, of Kidderminster in the County of Worcester.

Lord Foley married the Hon. Grace (d. 1769), daughter of George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne, in 1740. They had seven children:

• Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1742–1793), to whose family he devised the Great Witley estate
• Hon. Grace Foley (1 January 1743 – 9 January 1813), married James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, on 21 May 1774
• Hon. Edward Foley (1747–1803), to whose family he devised his paternal Stoke Edith estate
• Hon. Andrew Foley (c. 1748–1816), to whose family he devised the Newent estate
• Hon. Anne Foley (d. 9 December 1794), married Sir Edward Winnington, 2nd Baronet on 12 September 1776
• Hon. Elizabeth Foley (bef. 1769 – 13 October 1776)
• Hon. Mary Foley (d. December 1844), married Richard Clerk

Foley died in November 1777, aged 61. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Thomas.

References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Will of 1st Lord Foley
• www.thepeerage.com
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages