Name Thomas 1st Spouse Mary Finch (m. 1716) | Died December 14, 1750 | |
 | ||
Children Lady Anne Watson-Wentworth Grandchildren William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, Charles Fitzwilliam, Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam Great grandchildren George Heneage Lawrence Dundas Similar People Charles Watson‑Wentworth - 2nd Marq, William Fitzwilliam - 4th Earl F, Peter Wentworth‑Fitzwilliam - 8th Earl F, John Carr | ||
Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham, KB, PC (I) (13 November 1693 – 14 December 1750) was a British peer and Whig politician.
Watson-Wentworth was the only son and heir of Hon. Thomas Watson (later Watson-Wentworth, the third son of Edward Watson, 2nd Baron Rockingham) and his wife, Alice, a daughter of Sir Thomas Proby, 1st Baronet. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge (1707). In 1708 he bought Hallfield House, near Sheffield, and succeeded his father in 1723.
From 1715 to 1727, Watson-Wentworth was Member of Parliament for Malton, and for Yorkshire from 1727 to 1728. In 1725, he was appointed a Knight of the Bath, admitted to the Privy Council of Ireland in 1733, and was Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1733 to 1750. In 1728, he was created Baron Malton. At this time he deliberately burned most of the manuscripts left by the 17th-century antiquary Richard Gascoigne; this act has been attributed to legal advice from his attorney. In 1734, he was created Earl of Malton, and in 1746, Marquess of Rockingham. He had inherited the barony of Rockingham from his cousin, Thomas Watson, 3rd Earl of Rockingham, earlier in 1746.
Family
On 22 September 1716, Rockingham married Lady Mary Finch, a daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, and his second wife, Ann Hatton. They had five children: