Thomas Mansel, 1st Baron Mansel

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Sir Thomas Mansel, 1st Baron Mansel , PC ( November 9, 1667 - December 10, 1723 ), was a British nobleman and politician.

Origin and upbringing

Thomas Mansel came from the old Welsh Mansel family of Margam Abbey . He was the second but eldest surviving son of Sir Edward Mansel, 4th Baronet and his wife Martha Carne. He studied at Oxford , where he graduated from Jesus College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1686 . In 1689 he graduated from New Inn Hall in Oxford with a Master of Arts degree .

Life

Political activity

As a young man Mansel was in the general election in 1689 thanks to the influence of his family as MP for Cardiff in the House of Commons elected and re-elected in the elections in 1690 and the 1695th In contrast to his father, who was an opponent of King James II , he initially belonged to the Tories loyal to the king . After the Glorious Revolution , he was usually an opponent of the policies of the new King William III. of Orange , although in 1696 he signed the Association , a declaration of loyalty to the king. After he had renounced a renewed candidacy against the will of his father in the general election in 1698, he accompanied Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester in 1699 to Paris, where this became English ambassador. He then traveled to the Netherlands, where he, among other things, Castle Het Loo , a castle of Wilhelm III. visited. On his return he served as Sheriff of Glamorgan from 1700 to 1701 . After settling a dispute with his distant cousin Thomas Mansel of Briton Ferry over constituency candidacies in 1701, he was elected Knight of the Shire for Glamorgan in the December 1701 general election, while Thomas Mansel of Briton Ferry was elected as MP for Cardiff. He was re-elected in the lower house elections in 1702 and 1705. Mansel also held a number of other offices. Probably since 1689 he was deputy lieutenant and before 1697 he became lieutenant colonel in the Glamorgan militia . In addition, was Justice of the Peace of Glamorgan since 1689 and Justice of the Peace of Breconshire since 1699 .

Political advancement, power struggle with Mackworth and elevation to baron

By July 1703 at the latest, Mansel had been a friend of the influential speaker Robert Harley , which is why he became Comptroller of the Household and member of the Privy Council without cabinet rank from 1704 to 1708 . After the death of his father in 1706 he inherited his extensive estates in South Wales and the title of baronet , in addition he inherited the lifelong right to use his property at Briton Ferry from his cousin Thomas Mansel, who also died in 1706. In addition to lands, coal mines were also part of this heritage. These properties gave Mansel a substantial annual income, but he had inherited considerable debts from his father. Since 1706 Mansel was Constable of Cardiff Castle and thus mayor of the city, but in the same year he was embroiled in a power struggle for the seats in South Wales with Sir Humphrey Mackworth , who was supported by the Duke of Beaufort and Lord Windsor . While Mansel was politically attributed to the moderate Tories and supported the war with France and Spain , Mackworth, as a supporter of the conservative wing of the Tories, rejected the war. The dispute with Mackworth had not only a political, but also an economic component, since Mackworth had been a direct competitor of Mansel's cousin Thomas Mansel from Briton Ferry as a mining entrepreneur since the end of the 17th century. With the help of Mansel's father Edward Mansel, Thomas Mansel of Briton Ferry had finally tried to ruin Mackworth. After the death of his father and his cousin, Mansel was able to settle the conflict by 1708, so that he was re-elected as Knight of the Shire for Glamorgan in the general election in the same year. Together with Harley, he had resigned from his office as Comptroller in February 1708, but in 1710 he became one of the Commissioners of the Treasury , and after Harley became Lord High Treasurer in June 1711 , he first became Comptroller of the Household and a member of the Privy Council . He was re-elected Knight of the Shire in the October 1710 general election, and after his appointment as Comptroller, his election was confirmed in July 1711. On January 1, 1712 Mansel was promoted to Baron Mansel . He became a member of the House of Lords and had to resign from his parliamentary mandate. On the same day, seven other people were raised to the nobility , giving the Tories government a majority in the House of Lords. In 1712 he exchanged the office of Comptrollers for the lucrative office of Teller of the Exchequer . In 1714 he became Chamberlain of South Wales and from 1714 to 1715 Vice Admiral of South Wales. However, after Harley had to resign as Tory after the accession of George I to the throne , Mansel also lost his government office, resigned from the Privy Council and subsequently withdrew from most of his other offices in South Wales by 1715.

Economic activity

Like his father, Mansel was an industrialist. On the advice of his manager John Burroughs , who ran the coal mines of the Mansel family near Briton Ferry from 1705 to 1735, he had a copper smelter built, which was fired with local coal. The copper needed was brought from Cornwall by barge, which then brought coal from the coal mines of Mansel to Cornwall on the way back.

Family and offspring

In addition to Harley, Mansel's friends also included Jonathan Swift , Francis Gwyn and Erasmus Lewis . He had married Martha, a daughter of the London merchant Francis Millington , on May 18, 1686 in Westminster Abbey . He and his wife had a total of ten children, including:

He also had at least one illegitimate son and two illegitimate daughters. Since his eldest son Robert had died before him in April 1723, his son, his grandson Thomas Mansel , became his heir.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald Rees: The black mystery: coalmining in South-West Wales. Y Lolfa, Talybont 2008. ISBN 978-0-86243-967-5 , p. 55
  2. ↑ Ronald Rees: The black mystery: coalmining in South-West Wales. Y Lolfa, Talybont 2008. ISBN 978-0-86243-967-5 , p. 58
  3. ↑ a b Sir Thomas Mansell, 1st Baron Mansell of Margam on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ Ronald Rees: The black mystery: coalmining in South-West Wales. Y Lolfa, Talybont 2008. ISBN 978-0-86243-967-5 , p. 59
  5. ^ Westminster Abbey: Mansell family . Westminster Abbey site. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
predecessor Office successor
Edward Mansel Mansel Baronet, of Margam
1706-1723 		Thomas Mansel
New title created Baron Mansel
1712-1723 		Thomas Mansel
personal data
SURNAME Mansel, Thomas, 1st Baron Mansel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mansel, Sir Thomas, 5th Baronet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1667
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1723