General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, 6th Baronet (25 January 1727 – 29 August 1798) was an officer of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and politician who sat in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
from 1774 to 1780.
The son of Sir Thomas Wilson, 4th Baronet, he was educated at
Charterhouse School
(God having given, I gave)
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, president ...
. He succeeded his brother in
the baronetcy in 1760. By his wife, Jane Weller, he had one son and three daughters. One daughter married
Charles Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden
Charles George Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden PC FRS (1 October 1756 – 5 July 1840) was a British politician.
Background and education
Charles George Perceval was born at Charlton, Kent, the son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont, by his s ...
and another married
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. Perceval is the only British prime minister to ...
, the future prime minister.
He joined the British Army as an ensign in the
8th Regiment of Foot
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...
in 1744. He reached the rank of captain in that regiment, and on 14 April 1762, became a
captain-lieutenant
Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army.
Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland
The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Finl ...
in the
2nd Regiment of Foot Guards.
He progressed through the ranks to Major-General in 1777. He was made colonel of the
50th Regiment of Foot from 1777 until his death, promoted to lieutenant-general in 1782 and full general in 1796. He took part in the war in Flanders, the rebellion in Scotland, the war in Germany, where he was aide-de-camp to Lord Waldegrave at the
battle of Minden
The Battle of Minden was a major engagement during the Seven Years' War, fought on 1 August 1759. An Anglo-German army under the overall command of Prussian Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of Fr ...
, and in three expeditions on the coast of France.
He was MP for
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
from 1774 to 1780.
References
* John Brooke
WILSON, Sir Thomas Spencer, 6th Bt. (1727-98), of Uckfield, Suss.in ''
The History of Parliament
The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...
: the House of Commons 1754-1790'' (1964).
, -
1727 births
1798 deaths
People educated at Charterhouse School
Baronets in the Baronetage of England
British Army generals
King's Regiment (Liverpool) officers
Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers
British MPs 1774–1780
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Coldstream Guards officers
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