Paul Foley (1644/5 – 13 November 1699), also known as Speaker Foley, was the second son of Thomas Foley of

Witley Court Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the archit ...

,''Burke's Peerage'' the prominent

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a large ...

Ironmaster

He took over his father's

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...

in and around the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

in the early 1670s and continued them until 1685 when he let them to John Wheeler and Richard Avenant, who had managed ironworks for his brother

Philip Foley Philip Foley (12 May 1648 – December 1716) was the youngest of the three surviving sons of the British ironmaster Thomas Foley. His father transferred all his ironworks in the Midlands to him in 1668 and 1669 for £60,000. He also settled an ...

. In 1692, the two brothers entered into a partnership with these managers and John Wheeler's brother, Richard. This lasted until after Paul's death.

Gentleman

Paul Foley had the resources from his father and the profits of his ironworks to buy himself a substantial estate around

Stoke Edith Stoke Edith is a village in the English county of Herefordshire, situated on the A438 road between Hereford and Ledbury. The population in 1801 of Stoke Edith parish was 332. The 14th-century church of St Mary is a grade I listed building. It ...

in Herefordshire, part of which still belongs to a descendant. Important purchases included Stoke Edith from the trustees of Sir

Henry Lingen Sir Henry Lingen (23 October 1612 – 22 January 1662), Lord of Sutton, Lingen and Stoke Edith, was a Royalist military commander in Herefordshire during the English Civil War, and later a member of parliament. He was the son of Edward Lingen an ...

in 1670 (made by his father),Stoke Edith Park, Hereford, England
Parks and Gardens UK and other property from Sir Thomas Cooke in 1683. He rebuilt the house at Stoke Edith and laid out formal gardens and a park (which he had a royal licence to empark.

Politician

Paul Foley was elected MP for

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester, England, Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. ...

in 1679. He was elected again for the same seat in 1689. He actively campaigned for the exclusion of the Duke of York from the throne. He was imprisoned at the time of the

Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the ...

and again during the

Monmouth Rebellion The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ir ...

. However, James II later favoured him during his own later difficulties. During the reign of William III, he took an anti-court position, leading the "Country Whigs" faction with his nephew Robert Harley. During the early 1690s, he sat on several important

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

committees, including being a commissioner of accounts. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on 14 March 1695, a post he held until his death.Key, Newton E. "Foley, Paul (1644/5–1699)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 200

accessed 1 September 2009 He was (like the Harleys and his elder brother Thomas Foley (c. 1641–1701), Thomas) a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

and used his patronage rights in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

to appoint clergy of that persuasion to churches.Cliffe, John Trevor. ''The Puritan gentry besieged, 1650–1700'' (1993)
pp. 103–8

Family

He married Mary daughter of Alderman John Lane of London. Their eldest son was Thomas Foley. His younger son

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

, was also briefly an MP.

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Paul People from Herefordshire English ironmasters Speakers of the House of Commons of England People of the Rye House Plot 1640s births 1699 deaths Year of birth uncertain English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1689–1690 English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698 English MPs 1698–1700