Thomas Foley MP (bef. 1617 - 1677)

Born before 3 Dec 1617 in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Browne) Foley — married before 27 Nov 1638 in St Saviour, Southwark, Surrey, England

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1677 after age 59 in Whitley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mike Edwards [send private message]

Biography

Thomas Foley MP was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England.

Thomas Foley MP is Notable.

Thomas Foley was baptised in St Thomas Church, Stourbridge, Dudley, Worcestershire, England.
He was the eldest son of Richard Foley and his second wife Alice Brindley. His father was a prominent Midlands ironmaster of Stourbridge.

He married Anne Browne at St Saviour, Southwark on 27 November 1638. ^[1]

Thomas took over his father's business and made great profits from it in the 1650s and 1660s, which he used to buy estates. He was appointed High Sheriff of Worcestershire for 1656–57.

In 1659 he was elected Member of Parliament for Worcestershire in the Third Protectorate Parliament. He was elected MP for Bewdley in 1660 for the Convention Parliament. In 1673 he was elected MP for Bewdley in a by-election to the Cavalier Parliament.

Foley built Witley Court. In the late 1660s, he founded a bluecoat school at Stourbridge known as Old Swinford Hospital, which he endowed in his will.

Research note

A Thomas Foley was baptised at St Thomas, Dudley on 7 December 1617. ^[2] This perhaps is not the same Thomas Foley who became an MP^[3] or he has the wrong mother, or the marriage date for his parents given in ODNB is wrong.^[4]

Visitation has him as son of Alice Brindley giving Alice all the children bar Richard ^[5] ODNB gives 2 sons and 6 daughters to first marriage and 3 sons to the second.

Sources

1. ↑ Marriage record St Saviour, Southwark (27 November 1638 Thomas Foly married An Browne) Viewed at Ancestry. Text only.
2. ↑ Baptismal record St Thomas, Dudley (7 December 1617 Thomas Foley son of Richard Foley) Viewed at Ancestry. Text only
3. ↑ History of Parliament online: FOLEY, Thomas I (1617-77), of Witley Court, Worcs
4. ↑ M. B. Rowlands, ‘Foley family (per. c.1620–1716)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 1 May 2017. This is a subscription site but access is free to readers of British libraries whose library subscribes.
5. ↑ Visitations of Worcestershire Page 46 Foley

• Dictionary of National Biography (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Foley,_Thomas_(1617-1677))

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Foley_(died_1677)

• Biography of his son, Philip [1]

• Biography of his son-in-law, Robert Harley [2]

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p41065.htm#i410643

Note

Rowlands gives marriage date for Richard and Alice 31 October 1621. History of Parliament gives baptismal date for his son Thomas as 3 December 1617 2nd but first surviving son of Alice. Further work needed.