GASCOIGNE, Sir Thomas, 8th Bt. (1745-1810), of Parlington, Yorks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1780 - 1784
1784 - July 1784
11 Feb. 1795 - 1796

Family and Education

b. 7 Mar. 1745, at Cambrai, 3rd s. of Sir Edward Gascoigne, 6th Bt., by Mary, h. of Sir Francis Hungate, 4th Bt., of Huddleston. educ. St. Gregory’s, Douai 1756; Grand Tour 1765. m. (1) 4 Nov. 1772, da. of one Montgomery, s.p.; (2) 4 Nov. 1784, Mary, da. of James Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, Lancs., wid. of Sir Charles Turner, 1st Bt., of Kirkleatham, Yorks. 1s. d.v.p. suc. bro. Edward as 8th Bt. 10 Jan. 1762.

Offices Held

Capt. 1 regt. W. Riding militia 1788, lt.-col. 1794; lt.-col. commdt. Barkstone vols. 1798.

Biography

Gascoigne, one of Earl Fitzwilliam’s Whig friends in Yorkshire, was chairman of the tentative county committee to promote his party’s revenge at the next general election, appointed on 6 Nov. 1788. Charles Anderson Pelham* was prepared to sponsor his election for Beverley, if he could, but by March 1789 had given up the idea because ‘Popery, and all that sort of nonsense’ was objected against Gascoigne, a convert from Rome since 1780. He did not find a seat until, in 1795, the 11th Duke of Norfolk, a fellow convert, returned him on a vacancy for Arundel. He was a silent opponent of Pitt’s administration, voting for Fox’s censure motion, 24 Mar. 1795, and for Wilberforce’s motion in favour of peace, 27 May. After taking a fortnight’s leave on 2 June, he reappeared to vote against the seditious meetings bill, 27 Nov. 1795. On 1 Dec. he chaired the opposition meeting to petition against the bills at York. He did not stand at the general election of 1796.

Gascoigne died 11 Feb. 1810, having ‘been in a declining state for some time past’.

See YORKSHIRE; Fitzwilliam mss, boxes 39 and 40, Anderson Pelham to Fitzwilliam, 31 July 1788, 31 Mar. 1789; Gent. Mag. (1810), i. 189; The Times, 7 Dec. 1795; Wyvill, Pol. Pprs. v. 303, 311.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: M. H. Port

Notes