FERMOR, Thomas (1698-1753)

Leominster succeeded to the peerage while underage, though this did not prevent Sir Thomas Cave^‡ from appealing to him to ‘take care of his side’ in the forthcoming elections in Buckinghamshire in the summer of 1713. Verney ms mic. M636/55, Sir T. Cave to Fermanagh, 30 Aug. 1713. He seems early on to have tended towards the Jacobites but a trip to Hanover was thought to have persuaded him ‘to have nothing more to say to them and never to believe what they said more’. Cheshire ALS, Cholmondeley mss, DCH/X/5. His conversion resulted in several marks of favour. He was promoted in the peerage under George I and was awarded significant household and local office under George II. His career will be considered more fully in the second part of this work.