Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth

Who was Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth?

Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth was an English peer, descended from the first Sir John Thynne of Longleat House.

Thomas Thynne was born on 21 May 1710, the son of another Thomas Thynne and his wife Lady Mary Villiers. His father died a month before the young Thomas was born.

On 28 July 1714, upon the death of his great uncle Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, though he was only four years old, he inherited Longleat House and its great estates and succeeded to the Baronetcy of Thynne, of Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and to the titles of Baron Thynne of Warminster, Wiltshire, and Viscount Weymouth, of Dorset.

In 1733 he was appointed High Steward of Tamworth and was also Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England from 1735 to 1736. Between 4 December 1739 and 1751, he held the Royal offices of Keeper of Hyde Park, Keeper of the Mall, and Ranger of St. James's Park. Shortly after his Hyde Park appointment, Weymouth began the construction of the Serpentine lakes at Longleat, apparently in imitation of Hyde Park's Serpentine.

On 6 December 1726, Weymouth married firstly Lady Elizabeth Sackville, daughter of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset.