Family and Education

bap. 12 May 1648, 4th but 3rd surv. s. of Thomas Foley I, and bro. of Paul Foley and Thomas Foley II. m. Penelope, da. of William, 6th Lord Paget, 4s. (2 d.v.p.) 7da.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Bewdley 1675; commr. for assessment, Staffs. and Worcs. 1679-80, Staffs. 1689-1713; j.p. and dep. lt. Staffs. 1689-?d.2

Member, Society of Mines Royal 1690.3

Biography

Foley was an active partner in the family iron business, with works in seven counties. His father bought the manor of Prestwood about 1670 and settled it on him. A strong Presbyterian, he was a friend to Philip Henry and a patron to other nonconformist ministers. He sat for the family borough of Bewdley in the Exclusion Parliaments, and was classed as ‘honest’ by Shaftesbury. With his elder brothers also in the House, the only committee that can be definitely ascribed to him is on the bill for security against Popery, to which he was added on 7 May 1679; but he voted for the committal of the first exclusion bill. He is unlikely to have stood in 1685, but became a Whig collaborator later in James II’s reign.4

Foley was returned for Stafford in 1689. A moderately active Member of the Convention, he was appointed by full name to 23 committees, including the committee of elections and privileges in both sessions. With his brothers, he was named to the committee on the bill to regulate the Droitwich salt-works. His most important committees were to inquire into the delay in relieving Londonderry and to reverse the quo warranto judgment against London. He supported the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations, and was obliged to transfer himself to Droitwich at the general election of 1690. Like the rest of his family he was a country Whig in the next two Parliaments, signing the Association in 1696. He did not sit in the next reign, though he continued to be named to the Staffordshire tax commission until 1713. His will was proved on 21 Dec. 1716. The Prestwood branch produced no more Members of Parliament.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Edward Rowlands / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

• 1. Guildhall RO, St. Peter-le-Poer par. reg.; Shaw, Staffs. ii. 235.
• 2. Univ. Birmingham Hist. Jnl. i. 110; Staffs. Dep. Lts. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. 1931), 285.
• 3. BL Loan 16.
• 4. Worcs. Arch. Soc. n.s. xxvii. 35-37; Econ. Hist. Rev. (set. 2), iv. 326; PCC 136 Fox; Shaw, ii. 234; D. R. Lacey, Dissent and Parl. Pols. 395-6, R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 2, pp. 176-7.
• 5. PCC 136 Fox.