Sir Thomas Proby, 1st Baronet (18 October 1632 – 22 April 1689) of Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire) was an English 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. T ...

between 1660 and 1685. Elton Hall - geograph

Proby was the son of Sir Heneage Proby (of

Elton Elton may refer to: Places England * Elton, Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire), a village ** Elton Hall, a baronial hall * Elton, Cheshire, a village and civil parish * Elton, County Durham, a village and civil parish * Elton, Derbyshire ...

and Raans, Buckinghamshire) and his wife Ellen Allen, daughter of Edward Allen, of Finchley, Middlesex.John Burke, John Bernard Burke ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies''
/ref> In 1660, Proby was elected

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 o ...

for

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter be ...

in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Amersham in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

and sat until 1679. History of Parliament Online - Proby, Thomas
/ref> He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

in 1662. In 1679 he was elected MP for

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popu ...

and sat until 1685. He carried out a number of improvements to Elton Hall. Proby died at the age of 56.

Family

Proby married Frances Cotton, daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet of Connington, Huntingdonshire. His daughter Alice married the Hon. Thomas Watson-Wentworth MP, and had an only child,

Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham, KB, PC (I) (13 November 1693 – 14 December 1750) of Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 until 1728 when he was raised to ...

. Proby's son died travelling and the baronetcy became extinct on Proby's death. The Elton estate passed to his brother John Proby.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proby, Thomas 1632 births 1689 deaths People from Amersham People from Elton, Cambridgeshire English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 Baronets in the Baronetage of England Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Huntingdonshire