Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford

Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, PC (31 January 1720) was an English politician. His mother was Lady Dorothy Bourchier, daughter of Edward Bourchier, 4th Earl of Bath.

Career Grey took some part in resisting the arbitrary actions of James II, and was arrested in July 1685. After his release he took up arms on behalf of William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution, after whose accession to the throne he was made a Privy Counsellor (1694) and Lord Lieutenant of Devon (1696). Politically he was described as an "unrepentant Whig", who reaffirmed his belief in the Popish Plot by voting against the motion to reverse the attainder on William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford.

In 1697 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in 1699 President of the Board of Trade, being dismissed from his office upon the accession of Anne in 1702. From 1707 to 1711, however, he was again President of the Board of Trade.

Personal life He married twice. His first marriage was in 1651 to Elizabeth Harvey, a daughter of Sir Daniel Harvey, Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. They divorced.

Lord Stamford married secondly, in 1691, to Mary Maynard, a daughter of Joseph Maynard, MP in the Cavalier Parliament.

On his death on 31 January 1720 without surviving children, his titles and Leicestershire estate at Bradgate Park passed to his first cousin Henry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford (1685–1739), a grandson of the first earl, from whom the later earls were descended.

Arms

The arms of the head of the Grey family are blazoned Barry of six argent and azure in chief three torteaux gules.