Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart

Who was Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart?

Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart, styled Lord Huntingtower from 1651 to 1698, was a British Tory Member of Parliament and nobleman.

Dysart was the son of Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet, and Elizabeth, 2nd Countess of Dysart. Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, Lionel succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1669. The encumbrance of his paternal estate by debt bred in him a habit of frugality which was not shed in later years. In 1673, he contested Suffolk as a Tory; defeated by Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 1st Baronet, he had the return falsified by the sheriff, Sir William Soame, and took his seat in Parliament. An election committee declared Barnardiston elected, and he obtained 1,000 pounds damages from Huntingtower in a suit before the King's Bench, but the verdict was overturned by the Court of Exchequer Chamber. Huntingtower was made a freeman of Eye in 1675. He briefly served as Member of Parliament for Orford in 1679 as a member of the Habeas Corpus Parliament. In 1685, he was again returned for that borough and made portman of Orford, an office he held until about 1709.