Thomas Thoroton-Hildyard

Who was Thomas Thoroton-Hildyard?

Thomas Blackborne Thoroton-Hildyard was an English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1846 and 1885.

Thoroton-Hildyard was the son of Colonel Thomas Blackborne Thoroton-Hildyard of Flintham Hall and his wife Anne Catherine White. His mother was heiress of Sir Robert D'Arcy Hildyard, and his father had assumed the surname Hildyard in addition to Thoroton in 1815 in connection with inheriting of the Hildyard family's estates based around Winestead Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Thoroton-Hildyard was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. He was a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for Nottinghamshire and a major in the South Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Cavalry.

In 1846 Thoroton-Hildyard was elected Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire South. It was a toughly contested election. Hildyard was supported, according to the University of Nottingham, by the 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne "in spite of the fact that Newcastle’s son, the Earl of Lincoln, was his opponent. Lincoln attacked Hildyard’s youth and inexperience, but the 'young squire' still defeated him by a majority of almost 700.