PARES, Thomas (1790-1866), of Kirby Frith, Leics. and Hopwell Hall, Derbys.

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

Constituency

Dates

1818 - 1826

Family and Education

b. 30 Oct. 1790, 1st s. of John Pares, banker, of The Newarke, Leicester by Agnes, da. and coh. of Adam Lightbody of Liverpool, Lancs. educ. Eton; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1808, L. Inn 1808, called 1818. m. 19 May 1821, Octavia, da. of Edward Longdon Mackmurdo of Upper Clapton, Mdx., 3s. surv. 4da. suc. uncle Thomas Pares to Kirby Frith 1824; fa. to Hopwell Hall 1833.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Derbys. 1845-6.

Biography

Pares was the son of a Leicester hosiery manufacturer of a local dissenting background who in 1800 founded the Leicester Bank in partnership with his brother, Thomas Paget and James Heygate, the father of William Heygate*. It was Heygate who ran the London branch of the bank, 1805-34, and he and Pares married sisters. In 1818 Pares, recently called to the bar, canvassed Leicester against the corporation interest and ousted one of their Members without a contest. A ‘constitutional Whig’, he acted steadily with opposition in the House. He spoke only twice before 1820, in support of the Leicester framework knitters’ petition for relief, 15 Mar. 1819, and on 15 June, when he produced two Leicester witnesses from the gallery who could describe the disorderly conduct of the reporter Peter Finnerty.

Pares voted for criminal law reform, 2 Mar. 1819, for burgh reform, 1 Apr. and 6 May, for the extension of the franchise at Penryn, 22 June, and for Burdett’s reform motion, 1 July. He was an opponent of public lotteries, 4 May. He opposed repressive legislation in December 1819 and it was thought remarkable that he did not attend a radical meeting at Leicester denouncing the Peterloo tragedy. He died 26 Apr. 1866.

VCH Leics. iii. 51; iv. 136, 138, 140-1; A. Temple Patterson, Radical Leicester, 89, 122-3.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Lawrence Taylor

Notes