Thomas d. Walsingham 2nd baron (1748-1818)

Thomas de Grey, 2nd baron Walsingham, was born in London in 1748, son of William de Grey, Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and Mary Cowper, daughter of the Clerk of the Parliaments. He was educated at Eton, admitted to the Middle Temple in 1764 and became a fellow commoner of Trinity Hall Cambridge in 1766, taking his B.A. in 1769. Upon his return from the Grand Tour in 1771, he was appointed Groom of the Bedchamber by George III. The following year he married the Hon. Augusta Irby, daughter of William Irby, 1st baron Boston.

He sat as an M.P. from 1774 till 1781 when, on the death of his father, he became 2nd baron Walsingham and took his place in the House of Lords. In that same year he inherited from his uncle the de Grey family estates at Merton Hall, Norfolk. While an M.P., Walsingham had served in the Board of Trade and then under the Secretary of State for America. In the Lords, he continued to speak regularly, particularly on matters relating to these topics. In 1784 he was appointed a Privy Councillor and in 1787, after a number of other positions, he became joint Postmaster General. Throughout his career he proved himself a reliable and systematic worker, attentive to detail and dogged in pursuing his course, even in the face of opposition. In 1794, his appointment as Chairman of Committees in the Lords gave him the opportunity to exercise these faculties to the full. He reformed and standardised procedures in order to ensure efficient and thorough scrutiny of legislation, and personally chaired most committee meetings. When he retired on grounds of ill health in 1814, the address of thanks from the House of Lords praised his ‘Ability, Integrity, Impartiality and indefatigable Industry’.

Walsingham died at his home in Old Windsor in 1818 and was buried at Merton.