Thomas Strangways (1643–1713) of Melbury House in Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1673 and 1713. As a militia colonel he was active in opposing the Monmouth rebellion. For his last nine years in Parliament, he was the longest sitting member of the House of Commons (Father of the House).
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Early life
Strangways was born in 1643, the fourth but second surviving son of Giles Strangways (1615-1675), MP of Melbury Sampford and his wife Susanna Edwards, daughter of Thomas Edwards, Mercer, of London and Fair Crouch, Wadhurst, Dorset. He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford on 6 June 1660. He was a captain in the Dorset Militia Foot by 1671 and became colonel in 1675. On 19 January 1675 he married Susan Ridout, daughter and heiress of John Ridout of Frome, Somerset. He succeeded his brother John in 1676, inheriting the Melbury Sampford estate, where he extended Melbury House.
Career
Strangways’ father obtained the reversion of the post of Clerk of the Pells, an Exchequer sinecure for him in 1673 and nominated him as Country party candidate at by-elections for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis on 31 January 1673 and for Poole on 3 February 1673. Strangways was defeated in both by-elections, but was returned as Member of Parliament for Poole at another by-election on 3 March 1673 through an electoral bargain with Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury. At the 1679 general elections, he was returned as MP for Dorset his family's pocket borough and was also successful in returning supporters at four other Dorset constituencies. He was returned again at the general elections in 1681 and 1685.