CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington

British politician and Baron

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ7792728 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington, (c. 1655 – 27 May 1719) was a British barrister and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1695 until 1716 when he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain as Baron Torrington.

Early life

Born in High Ercall c. 1655, Newport was the fifth and second surviving son of Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, and his wife Lady Diana Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 21 May 1672, aged 17, and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1678 He became a reader of Inner Temple in 1700.

Political career

At the 1695 general election, Newport was returned as Member of Parliament for Ludlow and also became a freeman of Ludlow. At the 1698 general election, he was initially defeated at Ludlow, but petitioned and was seated on 1 March 1699. In 1699 he was appointed to the post of Commissioner of Customs which he held until 1712. At the general election of January 1701, Newport was elected as MP for Winchelsea but irregularities in the poll resulted in the Mayor being imprisoned and the election declared void on 27 February 1701. There was no re-election before the November 1701 election at which Newport did not stand.

Newport returned to parliament at the 1715 general election, when he was returned unopposed as MP for (Much) Wenlock on the interest of his brother, Lord Bradford. Also in 1715, he was appointed a Lord of the Treasury and held this office until 1718.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington” is british politician and Baron. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Thomas, Newport and Baron, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1655, 1719, 1695, 1716—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1655-01-01, 1654-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Thomas, Newport and Baron is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british politician and Baron” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7792728. VIAF identifies the subject as 88461343. The Library of Congress control number is no2009066881. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1655, 1719, 1695 and 1716.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington primary sources, Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.