Thomas Wallace, 1st Baron Wallace

Thomas Wallace, 1st Baron Wallace, PC, FRSE (1768 – 23 February 1844) was an English politician and peer.

The Lord Wallace
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
In office
1818–1823
Preceded byF. J. Robinson
Succeeded byCharles Grant
Personal details
Born1768
Died23 February 1844 (aged 77-78)
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford

Early life

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Wallace was born at Brampton in 1768, the son of James Wallace (1729–1783), a barrister who served as Solicitor General for England and Wales and as Attorney General to George III, and his wife, Elizabeth Simpson, the only daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Simpson Esq., of Carleton Hall, Cumberland.[1]

He was educated at Eton College from 1777 to 1784. He then studied at Christ Church at Oxford University, graduating MA in 1790.

 
Featherstone Castle, Northumberland

Following the death of his father in 1783, he inherited (at age 15) Carleton Hall, which lies near Penrith, Cumbria.

In 1793 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Dalzell, Henry Brougham and Alexander Fraser Tytler.[1]

He sold the Carleton estate in 1828 to John Cowper. He then acquired Featherstone Castle near Haltwhistle, Northumberland and remodelled it in the 1830s to a Gothic style.

Political career

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Wallace was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Grampound from 1790 to 1796, for Penryn from 1796 to 1802, for Hindon from 1802 to 1806, for Shaftesbury from 1807 to 1812, for Weymouth from 1812 to 1813, for Cockermouth from 1813 to 1818 and again for Weymouth from 1818 to 1828.

He was Lord of the Admiralty from 1797 to 1800.

He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1801[2] and ennobled as Baron Wallace, of Knaresdale in the County of Northumberland, on 2 February 1828.[3]

He was a member of the Board of Control from 1807 to 1816 (responsible for overseeing the British East India Company), and Vice-President of the Board of Trade from 1818 to 1823. From 1823 to 1827 he was Master of the Mint.

Personal life

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In 1814 Baron Wallace, aged 46, married Lady Jane Hope (1766-1829),[4] Viscountess Melville (widow of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville), daughter of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun. Lady Jane died in June 1829. Lady Jane was then 48 and well beyond child-bearing years, even had she been able (she had no children by her first marriage).

Lord Wallace survived her by 15 years and died at Featherstone on 23 February 1844. Having no children, the barony died with him.[5]

Arms

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Coat of arms of Thomas Wallace, 1st Baron Wallace
 
 
Crest
Out of a ducal coronet Or an ostrich’s head and neck Proper holding a horseshoe in the beak.
Escutcheon
Gules a lion rampant Argent within a bordue compony of the second and Azure.
Supporters
Dexter a lion per bend dove-tailed sinister Sable and Or murally crowned and charged on the shoulder with a cross-flory Gold; sinister an antelope Proper ducally gorged and chained and charged on the shoulder as the dexter.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5.
  2. ^ "No. 15367". The London Gazette. 19 May 1801. p. 557.
  3. ^ "No. 18435". The London Gazette. 25 January 1828. p. 161.
  4. ^ "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com.
  5. ^ "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
  6. ^ Burke's Peerage. 1843.

Sources

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Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Grampound
1790–1796
With: Jeremiah Crutchley
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Penryn
1796–1800
With: William Meeke
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for Penryn
18011802
With: William Meeke
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hindon
18021806
With: John Pedley
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury
18071812
With: Edward Loveden Loveden
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Weymouth
1812–1813
With: Sir John Murray, Bt
John Broadhurst
Henry Trail
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cockermouth
1813–1818
With: Viscount Lowther 1813–1816
John Lowther 1816–1818
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Weymouth
1818–1828
With: William Williams 1818–1826
John Gordon 1826–1828
Fowell Buxton 1818–1832
Masterton Ure 1813–1832
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Vice-President of the Board of Trade
1818–1823
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Wallace
1828–1844
Extinct