Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (8 November 1673 – 22 January 1733) was the eldest son of Thomas Foley (c. 1641–1701) and inherited the Great Witley

Great Witley

Great Witley is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the northwest of the county of Worcestershire, England...

 estate on his father's death. He was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Stafford

Stafford (UK Parliament constituency)

Stafford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The sitting MP is the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy....

 from 1694 until his elevation to the peerage in 1712, as one of 12 peers created on the recommendation of the Lord Treasurer

Lord High Treasurer

The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Act of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third highest ranked Great Officer of State, below the Lord High Chancellor and above the Lord President...

, Robert Harley Earl of Oxford, to give him a majority in the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

.

Business

When the lease of ironworks at Wilden

Wilden Ironworks

The village of Wilden is in the English county of Worcestershire. It was for many years the location of an ironworks.-Wilden Mill:Wilden was part of the demesne of the Bishop of Worcester's manor of Hartlebury. A mill was built on the River Stour in 1511 by William Baylly, a fuller...

 and Shelsley Walsh

Shelsley Walsh

Shelsley Walsh is a small village in Worcestershire, England at the top of a the western valley side of the River Teme.Its population at the time of the 2001 Census was just 31, but the village's name is widely known among motorsport enthusiasts because of its association with the Shelsley Walsh...

 expired in 1708, he took them in hand and they were operated as an estate enterprise by him and successive owners of the estate until 1776.

Family

Thomas Foley married Mary Strode with whom he fathered seven children, five of them predeceasing their parents. His only surviving son was Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley

Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1703–1766)

Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley was the eldest son of Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley and inherited the vast Great Witley estate on his father's death in 1733, including ironworks at Wilden and Shelsley Walsh....

, on whose death the title became extinct, while the estates devolved upon his distant cousin Thomas Foley

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1716–1777)

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley was a British politician.Foley was the son of Thomas Foley and his wife Hester , and the cousin, namesake and heir of Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley , thus acquiring Witley Court and the extensive Great Witley estate...

 of Stoke Edith

Stoke Edith

Stoke Edith is a village in the English county of Herefordshire, situated on a road leading from Hereford to Ledbury. The manor belonged formerly to the Wallwynes, Milwaters and Lingen families....

, Herefordshire, for whom the title was revived in 1776.