Thomas Foley held the sinecure office of auditor of the imprests

Auditor of the imprests

Auditor of the Imprests was a profitable office of the Exchequer, responsible for auditing the accounts of officers of the English crown to whom money was issued for government expenditure, from 1559 to 1785.-Foundation:...

. He was the eldest son of Paul Foley

Paul Foley (ironmaster)

Paul Foley , also known as Speaker Foley, was the second son of Thomas Foley of Witley Court, the prominent Midlands ironmaster.-Ironmaster:...

, Speaker of the House of Commons

Speaker of the British House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 and ironmaster

Ironmaster

An ironmaster is the manager – and usually owner – of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain....

, and succeeded to his estates around 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 on his father's death in 1699.

Thomas Foley was Member of Parliament for Hereford

Hereford (UK Parliament constituency)

Hereford was, until 2010, a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since 1918, it had elected one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system....

 from 1700 to 1722 and 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 1722 to 1727 and again from 1734 until his death. Throughout this period, he was the leading ironmaster in the Forest of Dean

Forest of Dean

The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...

. Initially this business was managed by John Wheeler and then by William Rea

William Rea

William Rea may refer to:* William Rea who lived in Monmouth in the early 18th century* William Rea of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania*William J. Rea , U.S. federal judge...

, until Rea was sacked in 1725. From that time the number of ironworks operated by his business, latterly without outside partners gradually declined.

He and his wife Anne, daughter and heir of Essex Knightley of Fawsley

Fawsley

Fawsley is a hamlet and civil parish in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire, England. The population at the 2001 census was 32....

, Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

 had one son Thomas Foley (c 1695-1749)

Thomas Foley (c 1695-1749)

Thomas Foley , of Stoke Edith, Herefordshire, was the eldest son Thomas Foley and inherited his estates on his death in 1737. He represented Hereford in Parliament from 1734 to 1741, and Herefordshire from 1742 to 1747.He continued the family interest in ironmaking in the Forest of Dean,...

, and two daughters.