MICKLETHWAIT, Thomas (1678-1718), of Swine, nr. Hull, Yorks.

The grandson of an eminent physician, who bought the manor of Swine from the Darcys in the middle of the seventeenth century, Thomas Micklethwait was introduced by his relation, the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, and his friend, Sir John Cropley, to James Stanhope, on whose recommendation he was given a place by Lord Treasurer Godolphin in 1708. While Stanhope was in Spain his London interests were looked after by Micklethwait, who wrote to him, II Mar. 1712: ‘The greatest ambition I ever had was to be known to you and engaged in your service’.Cropley to Harley, 17 May [1711], Portland mss, box 132, bdle 9, item 1; Cropley to Stanhope, 18 May 1708, Chevening mss by permission of the 7th Earl Stanhope. In 1713 Cropley died, leaving his estates in Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Durham, and London to ‘my very dear friend, Thomas Micklethwait’.PCC 252 Leeds. Returned for the venal borough of Arundel in 1715, he was appointed to the Treasury board when Stanhope succeeded Walpole as first lord and chancellor of the Exchequer in 1717. When a year later Stanhope gave up the Treasury to become once more secretary of state, Micklethwait was transferred to a post in the Ordnance. He died a few days later, 28 Mar. 1718, leaving his estates to his brother, Joseph, and his heirs, on condition that they took the surname of Cropley, ‘in gratitude to the memory of my dear friend, Sir John Cropley, who gave me much the greatest part of what I now have in the world’,PCC 130 Tenison. a condition which was not observed.