WIGGENS, Thomas (d. 1785), of Leigh, Kent

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1784 - 18 Jan. 1785

Family and Education

o.s. of Thomas Wiggens of Greenwich, Kent.  educ. L. Inn 1777.  m. 3 July 1779, Margaret, da. of Charles, 6th Lord Kinnaird [S], 2s.

Offices Held

Biography

Wiggens stood at Okehampton on a joint interest with John Luxmoore against the candidates of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Spencer, but how he became connected with Luxmoore is not known. He was classed by William Adam in 1784 as ‘Administration’. No speech or vote by him is recorded. He died on 18 Jan. 1785, and on 27 Apr. his election was declared void.

A grandson of his, Douglas Kinnaird Wiggens, raised c.1845 a claim to the earldom of Bath alleging that Thomas Wiggens was the son of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, by a second (otherwise unrecorded) marriage to Anne Francis Anderson, whom he married 14 Nov. 1761 and who died in childbirth 7 Sept. 1762. The claim is mentioned in Burke’s peerage, 8th ed. 1845, but does not appear again in the 9th edition, 1849, nor anywhere else.1

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

  • 1. N. & Q. cxciii. 368, 437.