ROUS, Thomas Bates (c.1739-99), of Berners St., London

Rous entered the naval service of the East India Company ‘under the patronage of Lord Clive, soon acquired a handsome fortune’,Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 250. and returned to England shortly after his father’s death. In 1773 he contested Worcester on the corporation interest, backed by Clive and probably also by Government; but was unseated on petition for bribery (the election is said to have cost him £10,000). He was successful after a contest at the general election of 1774, and in 1780 he had another contest.

Rous voted steadily against North’s Administration. He voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783; for parliamentary reform, 7 May 1783, and for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. His defeat at Worcester in 1784 was attributed to his support of the Coalition, but probably a more important reason was the exhaustion of his financial resources—it was his fourth contest in ten years.

He died 1 Feb. 1799.