Thomas Knox, 1st Viscount Northland (20 April 1729 – 5 November 1818), known as The Lord Welles between 1781 and 1791, was an Irish politician.

Background

Thomas Knox was the son of Thomas Knox and Hester Echlin. He married Anne Vesey in 1753 and they had seven children. He died on 5 November 1818 at age 89.

Political career

Knox 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,...

 in the Irish House of Commons for Dungannon

Dungannon (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Dungannon was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until 1800.-History:In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Dungannon was represented with two members.-1689–1801:...

 from 1755 until 1781. In 1756, he was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland

Peerage of Ireland

The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...

 as Baron Welles, of Dungannon

Dungannon

Dungannon is a medium-sized town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the third-largest town in the county and a population of 11,139 people was recorded in the 2001 Census. In August 2006, Dungannon won Ulster In Bloom's Best Kept Town Award for the fifth time...

 in the County of Tyrone

County Tyrone

Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...

.

In 1791 Knox was ennobled as Viscount Northland, of Dungannon in the County of Tyrone. With the Act of Union and the abolition of the Irish Parliament

Parliament of Ireland

The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed in Dublin from 1297 until 1800. In its early mediaeval period during the Lordship of Ireland it consisted of either two or three chambers: the House of Commons, elected by a very restricted suffrage, the House of Lords in which the lords...

 in 1800, he became one of the 28 original Irish Representative Peers

Representative peer

In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords...

 in the British House of Lords from then until his death.

External links

• Public Records Office of Northern ireland