Family and Education

m. (3) 12 May 1738, Jane, da. of Hon. William Egerton, yr. bro. of Scrope Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgwater, 1da.

Offices Held

Victualling agent at Lisbon 1716;1 commr. of victualling 1728-June 1747.

Biography

Revell, of whose origins and first two marriages nothing is known, started his career as victualling agent at Lisbon in 1716,2 rising to become a commissioner of victualling at £500 p.a. Awarded a lucrative contract for victualling the garrison of Gibraltar3 in 1733, he was able by 1735 to buy Fetcham Park. During the remainder of his life he made a considerable fortune out of such army contracts. When, on his standing in 1734 at Dover, his fellow commissioners ‘agreed to have four hundred head of oxen killed at Dover ... Thomas Revell ... bought the offals of the said four hundred oxen and ordered them to be given to the poor inhabitants.’4 He consistently supported the Administration but in 1747 resigned his office which, under the Place Act of 1742, was about to become incompatible with a seat in the Commons. He died 26 Jan. 1752, leaving his daughter Jane, still a minor, a fortune of over £20,000.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Add. 15936, f. 90.
• 2. Add. 15936, f. 90.
• 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1731-4, p. 400.
• 4. St. James’s Evening Post, 29 Jan. 1734.