Thomas Tomkins (MP)
English politician
Sir Thomas Tomkins JP (c. 1605 – 31 December 1674) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1674. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Early life
Tomkins was the fifth but second surviving son of Anne (née Boyle) Tomkins and James Tomkins of Monnington on Wye, Herefordshire, and of Garnestone south of Weobley. His ancestors had been gentry in Herefordshire since the 15th century, but were of minor importance before the Tudor period, and his father, who was responsible for the re-enfranchisement of Weobley in 1628, was the first of the family to sit in Parliament.
Career
In April 1640, Tomkins was elected Member of Parliament for Weobley in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Weobley for the Long Parliament in November 1640. He supported the king and was disabled form sitting in parliament on 22 January 1644.
He succeeded to the family estates, including Garnstone Manor, Weobley, upon his elder brother William's death in 1640, and was knighted in 1663. Tomkins was elected MP for Weobley for the Convention Parliament in August 1660 after the previous election was declared void. He was re-elected MP for Weobley for the Cavalier Parliament in 1661 and sat until his death in 1674.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Tomkins (MP)” 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.