Thomas Dummer (1739–1781) was an English

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Newport (Isle of Wight) (1765–1768), Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) (1769–1774), Downton in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

(1774),

Wendover Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

(1775–1780) and

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

(1780–1781). Cranbury Park Hampshire Morris edited

Political career

Dummer was the son of

Thomas Lee Dummer Thomas Lee Dummer ( – 6 October 1765) was an English Member of Parliament for Southampton (1737–1741) and Newport (Isle of Wight) (1765–1768). Family Dummer's uncle, Edmund Dummer (1663–1724), was a lawyer who was appointed a Clerk o ...

. On his father's death in October 1765, he succeeded him to the family estate at

Cranbury Park Cranbury Park is a stately home and country estate situated in the parish of Hursley, Winchester, England. It was formerly the home to Sir Isaac Newton and later to the Chamberlayne family, whose descendants now own and occupy the house and surr ...

near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

as well as estates at

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

and

Netley Netley, officially referred to as Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Ro ...

, near

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and at

Horninghold Horninghold is a small village and parish seven miles north-east of Market Harborough in the county of Leicestershire. The village's name means 'wood belonging to the people of Horning'. Following the Norman Conquest in 1066 the village was g ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. He also took his father's parliamentary seat at Newport. In 1768, he lost his seat to

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

who was in the patronage of the influential

Hans Stanley Hans Stanley, PC (23 September 1721 – 12 January 1780) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1743 and 1780. Early life Stanley was christened on 9 October 1721 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. He wa ...

. In 1769, he became M.P. for nearby

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

(1769–1774). Originally, the election was in favour of

William Strode William Strode (1598 – 9 September 1645) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1624 and 1645. He was one of the Five Members whose impeachment and attempted unconstitutional arrest by King Charles I in ...

and Jervoise Clarke, but on petition the election was reversed in favour of Dummer and Major General the Hon. George Lane Parker. In the 1774 election, Dummer stood for election at Downton in

. He and Thomas Duncombe were initially declared the victors, but on petition it was decided that they had not been duly elected and their opponents, John Cooper and Sir Philip Hales, were declared elected in their place. The following year, he was elected to represent

before returning to Hampshire in 1780 as M.P. for

until his death in 1781. In May 1773, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Cranbury Park

On his father's death in 1765, Dummer inherited the family estate at

. In 1770, he purchased the City Cross (also known as the

Buttercross A buttercross, also known as butter cross or butter market, is a type of market cross associated with English market towns and dating from medieval times. Its name originates from the fact that they were located at the market place, where peopl ...

) from the Corporation of

, intending to have it re-erected at Cranbury. When his workmen arrived to dismantle the cross, they were prevented from doing so by the people of the city, who "''organised a small riot''" and they were forced to abandon their task. The agreement with the city was cancelled and Dummer erected a

lath and plaster Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood ( laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. The ...

facsimile, which stood in the park for about sixty years before it was destroyed by the weather. Undaunted by his failure to acquire the City Cross to grace the estate, Dummer turned his attention to the ruins of

Netley Abbey (Happy Place), Lieu-Saint-Edward, Letley , order= Cistercians , established= 1239 , disestablished= 1536/7 , mother= Beaulieu Abbey , diocese= Diocese of Winchester , founder= Peter des Roches and Henry III , dedication= Virgin Mary and ...

, which he also owned, and moved the north transept of the abbey to Cranbury Park, where it can be still be seen as a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

in the gardens of the house (at ). The ruins comprise an arch, the base of a pillar, and a scaled-down gateway tower. The rear of the gateway has been made into a keeper's lodge, and is known to the village of

Otterbourne Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately south of Winchester and north of Southampton. At the 2011 census, its population was 1,539, and there were 626 dwellings. There are three public houses in the village: ...

as "the Castle" and is marked as such on the

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

map. Thomas Dummer died without heirs in 1781, leaving his property at Cranbury and

and also at

first to his widow, Harriet, daughter of

Sir Cecil Bishopp, 6th Baronet Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 6th Baronet Bisshopp (30 October 1700 – 15 June 1778), was a British politician. He succeeded to the title of 6th Baronet Bishopp, of Parham, co. Sussex on 25 October 1725. He was Member of Parliament for Penryn betw ...

of Parham, with reversion to his lifelong friend Thomas Chamberlayne. Harriet Dummer then married Thomas Chamberlayne, and after his death she married the artist Nathaniel Dance in 1790.George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 156. Dance, who was later to become Sir

Nathaniel Dance-Holland Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet (8 May 1735 – 15 October 1811) was an English portrait painter and later a politician. Early life The third son of architect George Dance the Elder, Dance (he added the 'Holland' suffix later in l ...

, Bt., was the brother of George Dance, who had designed the present-day house at Cranbury, built in 1780.

References

External links

The Family of Dummer of British Origin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dummer, Thomas 1739 births 1781 deaths British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 Members of Parliament for the Isle of Wight Fellows of the Royal Society