Thomas Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes

Thomas Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes (2 November 1699 – 21 July 1764) was a British politician who was Vice-Admiral and Governor of the Isle of Wight (1763–4) and sat in the House of Commons between 1727 and 1774. He managed elections in the government interest in the Isle of Wight during the 1750s and 1760s.

Early life Holmes was baptized on 2 November 1699, the eldest son of Henry Holmes, MP, of Thorley, Yarmouth and his wife Mary, illegitimate daughter of Sir Robert Holmes, MP, of Thorley. He married Anne Apsley, widow of Colby Apsley, and daughter of Henry Player of Alverstone, Hampshire.

Career At the 1727 British general election Holmes was returned as a Tory Member of Parliament for Newtown, where his family shared the electoral influence with the Worsleys. He voted against the Administration on the civil list on 23 April 1729 but was unseated on petition on 25 April 1729. He was returned unopposed for Newtown at the 1734 British general election. He voted against the Administration on the Spanish convention in 1739 and was absent from the division on the place bill in 1740. In 1738, on the death of his father, he succeeded to his estates and political interests on the Isle of Wight. He did not stand at the 1741 British general election but returned his brother General Henry Holmes for Newtown instead.

Holmes was sufficiently valuable to the ministries of Pelham and Newcastle that he was able to ask for and receive secret service payments for each seat he secured. He was also given a peerage as Baron Holmes, of Kilmallock in the County of Limerick, on 11 September 1760. He was appointed Governor of the Isle of Wight from 6 April 1763.

Family Holmes first wife, Anne Player Apsley, died in 1743, and he married as his second wife Catherine Leigh, daughter of John Leigh of Shorwell, Isle.of Wight. He died in 1764 and was buried on 21 July. His only son by his first marriage predeceased him and the peerage became extinct on his death, but was revived in 1797 in favour of his nephew Leonard Holmes.

Genealogy

Henry Holmes of Mallow, County Cork, Ireland Colonel Thomas Holmes of Kilmallock, County Limerick, Ireland Henry Holmes (–1738) m. Mary Holmes (daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Holmes)

Lieutenant General Henry Holmes (1703–62) Rear Admiral Charles Holmes (1711–1761) Elizabeth Holmes m. Thomas Troughear Leonard (Troughear) Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes (–1804) m. Elizabeth Tyrrell (d.1810) The Hon. Elizabeth Holmes m. Edward Rushout Descendants Admiral Sir Robert Holmes (–1692), English Admiral Mary Holmes (wife of Henry Holmes) Admiral Sir John Holmes (1640?–1683), English Admiral leader