CONYERS, Thomas (?1666-1728), of Elemore, nr. Durham.

Thomas Conyers, of an old Yorkshire family, having acquired through marriage an estate near Durham, represented the borough as a Tory in every Parliament but one between 1698 and 1727. Re-elected unopposed with his son-in-law, George Baker, in 1715, he voted against the Administration in all recorded divisions. In 1717 he and John Hedworth, the county Member, successfully promoted a bill for improving Sunderland harbour and deepening the river Wear. Conyers was ‘very warm’ in opposing a motion, made on 6 Apr., to allow the Newcastle representatives to put their case against the bill, and ‘confounded mad’ when the motion was passed.E. Hughes, N. Country Life in 18th Cent. 293-4, 297. Before the new session in 1718 William Cotesworth, a leading local Whig, wrote to Sunderland:18 Oct. 1718, Sunderland (Blenheim) mss. ‘I am upon a project for making the two citizens for Durham [i.e. Conyers and his son-in-law] either stay at home this session or behave themselves better than they did the last’. Again returned after a contest in 1722, he did not stand in 1727, dying 4 Oct. 1728.