Sir Thomas Blount, 1st Baronet

Thomas Pope Blount was born on 12 September 1649 at Upper Holloway,{{cite book|title=Urbane Travellers, 1591-1635|first=Boies|last=Penrose|date=2016|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=236}} Islington, London. He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Blount and Hester, the widow of Sir Henry Mainwaring.{{cite book|title=The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester|first=George|last=Ormerod|volume=1|date=1882|page=482n}} (The manor house of Upper Holloway had been inherited by his mother from her father Christopher Wase.){{cite book|title=The History and Topography of the Parish of Saint Mary, Islington, in the County of Middlesex|first=Samuel|last=Lewis|date=1842|page=274}} Thomas was the brother of Charles Blount, a prominent deist philosopher and writer. Thomas married on 22 July 1669 Jane Caesar, the daughter of Sir Henry Caesar. The couple had fourteen children.{{cite web |url= http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp?Page=Item&ItemID=2592&Desc=Sir-Thomas-Pope-Blount-%7C-Thomas-Forster |title= [Portrait] Sir Thomas Pope Blount, 1st Baronet (1649-1697), 1700, [by] Thomas Forster (c.1677-1712)|website= Historical Portraits Image Library|publisher= Philip Mould Ltd|access-date= 30 April 2023}}

He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 1 December 1668.{{cite book|title=Lincoln's Inn Admissions Register|volume=1|date=1896|page=303}} In December 1678 he inherited Tyttenhanger House, Hertfordshire from his mother, before succeeding to the remainder of the family estate on the death of his father in 1682. He was the member of parliament for St Albans between 1679 and 1681 and for Hertfordshire between 1689 and 1697. A loyal Whig, he was a member of the Green Ribbon Club. He was a commissioner under the Public Accounts Act between 1694 and 1697.

Blount was created a baronet during the life of his father on 27 January 1680.{{cite book|title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England|first=John|last=Burke|volume=1|date=1838|page=68}} On his death the title passed to his son, Sir Thomas Pope Blount, 2nd Baronet.

• Censura celebrorum authorum sive tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clarissimis cujusque seculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur (1690)
• Essays on Several Subjects (1691, 2nd ed. 1692){{cite web |url= https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A28474.0001.001/1:6?c=eebo;c=eebo2;g=eebogroup;rgn=div1;view=toc;xc=1;|title= Essays on several subjects written by Sir Tho. Pope Blount|last= Blount|first= Sir Thomas Pope|date= 1692 |website= Early English Books Online|publisher= University of Michigan|access-date= 30 April 2023}} [spelling in the original]
• I. That INTEREST Governs the World: And that Popery is nothing but Priest-Craft, or an Invention of the Priests to get Money.
• II. The great Mischief and Prejudice of LEARNING. And that a Wise Man ought to be preferr'd before a Man of LEARNING.
• III. Of Education, and Custome; The great Influence it hath upon most Men. But that a good Education is not al∣way Effectual.
• IV. Of the Ancients: And the Respect that is due unto them: That we should not too much enslave our selves to their Opinions.
• V. Whether the Men of this present Age are any way inferiour to those of former Ages, either in respect of Vertue, Learning, or long Life.
• VI. Of Passion: And whether the Passions are an Advantage, or Disadvantage to Men.
• VII. The Variety of Opinions: Whence it proceeds: The uncertainty of Humane Knowledge.
• A Natural History, containing many not common observations extracted out of the best modern writers (1693)
• De re poetica, or remarks upon Poetry, with Characters and Censures of the most considerable Poets (1694){{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Blount, Sir Thomas Pope|volume=4|page=87}}

In 1697 Blount added an essay that has been described as openly deistic.[https://archive.org/stream/modernrati00mccauoft#page/44/mode/1up Thomas Pope Blount] in A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists His {{lang|la|Censura celebrorum authorum sive tractatus in quo varia virorum doctorum de clarissimis cujusque seculi scriptoribus judicia traduntur}} (1690) was originally compiled for Blount's own use, and is a dictionary in chronological order of what various eminent writers have said about one another. This involved enormous labour in Blount's time. It was published at Geneva in 1694 with all the quotations from modern languages translated into Latin, and again in 1710.

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{{s-ttl| title = Baronet
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Category:1649 births

Category:1697 deaths

Category:People from Islington (district)

Category:Politicians from the London Borough of Islington

Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn

Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of England

Category:Members of the Green Ribbon Club

Category:English MPs 1679

Category:English MPs 1680–1681

Category:English MPs 1681

Category:English MPs 1689–1690

Category:English MPs 1690–1695

Category:English MPs 1695–1698

Category:Civil servants in the Audit Office (United Kingdom)

Category:Members of the Parliament of England for Hertfordshire