Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow

Onslow was the only surviving son of Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow. He was educated at Eton College from 1691 to 1693, and the travelled abroad in Holland and France from 1697 to 1698. He married Elizabeth Knight, the daughter of John Knight, a merchant of Jamaica, and niece of Colonel Charles Knight, and was heir to both their fortunes.{{cite web| url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/onslow-thomas-1679-1740| title= ONSLOW, Thomas (1679–1740), of West Clandon, Surr.| publisher= History of Parliament Online (1690–1715)| accessdate = 9 June 2019 }}

He represented a continuous succession of constituencies in the Parliament of England and Great Britain. He first entered Parliament in 1702, aged 22 or 23, as the MP for Gatton, Surrey, an underpopulated rural borough that had once had a market in the medieval period. He was then returned in 1705 to represent the larger settlement of Chichester, West Sussex, followed by Bletchingley (1708–1715) and finally the county seat of Surrey (1715–1717), which then included much of today's Greater London south of the Thames including, for example, Battersea and Lambeth. He was awarded LL.D at Cambridge University in 1717 and became 2nd Baron Onslow on the death of his father in 1717. He was a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer from 1718 to his death{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/onslow-thomas-1679-1740|title=ONSLOW, Thomas (1679–1740), of Clandon, Surr.|publisher= History of Parliament Online (1715-1754|accessdate= 13 July 2016}}

Image:Clandon House, Surrey.jpg to a lavish English country house by this Lord Onslow, but the 3rd Lord Onslow had its interiors finished. It features a two-storey Marble Hall and marble chimney and other pieces by the Flemish sculptor Michael Rysbrack, but the interior was gutted by fire in 2015.]]

As Lord Onslow he was a leading participant in an insurance business known as Onslow's Insurance or Onslow's Bubble, which secured incorporation under the Bubble Act as Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation.{{cite book |last= Scott |first= W. R. |title= The Constitution and Finance of ... Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year= 1911 |volume= III |pages= 396–409}}

The Onslow family seat remains Clandon Park, East and West Clandon, Surrey.

Clandon Park House and its 7-acre garden, was gifted to the Nation in 1956, a National Trust and this mansion and gardens were for the most part commissioned by him.

The senior branch of the Onslow family continues to own and manage their agricultural business and the Clandon Park parkland to this day. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries the family owned several thousand acres of farmland scattered across many villages in Surrey from which they derived an income.{{cite book |editor-last= Malden |editor-first= H. E. |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42981 |publisher=Institute of Historical Research (a University of Portsmouth joint project) |year=1911 |title= A History of the County of Surrey |volume= 3 |access-date= 1 February 2014 }}

According to research carried out under University College London's Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, Clandon House was built by Onslow possibly as a result of his wife's slavery-derived fortune.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146648873|title=Thomas 2nd Lord Onslow|website=Legacies of British Slave-ownership|access-date=8 July 2019}} The slave plantation which Elizabeth inherited was her uncle Charles' Whitehall Plantation in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146653247|title=Charles Knight|website=Legacies of British Slave-ownership|access-date=18 November 2018}}

He had one son, Richard, who succeeded him on his death in 1740.

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{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Gatton | with=Maurice Thompson | before=Thomas Turgis | before2=Maurice Thompson | after=Sir George Newland | after2=Paul Docminique | years=1702–1705}}

{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Chichester | with=Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt | before=William Elson | before2=Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt | after=Parliament of Great Britain | years=1705–1707}}

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{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Chichester | with=Sir Thomas Littleton, Bt | before=Parliament of England | after=Thomas Carr | after2=Sir Richard Farington, Bt | years=1707–1708}}

{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Haslemere | with=Theophilus Oglethorpe | before=George Woodroffe | before2=John Fulham | after=Theophilus Oglethorpe | after2=Sir Nicholas Carew | years=1708}}

{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Bletchingley | with=George Evelyn | before=John Ward | before2=George Evelyn | after=George Evelyn | after2=Sir William Clayton | years=1708–1715}}

{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Haslemere | with=George Vernon | before=Theophilus Oglethorpe | before2=Sir John Clerke, Bt | after=George Vernon | after2=Sir Nicholas Carew | years=1713–1714}}

{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Surrey | with=Lord Guernsey | before=Lord Guernsey | before2=Sir Richard Onslow, Bt | after=Lord Guernsey | after2=Denzil Onslow | years=1715–1717}}

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{{succession box | before=Unknown | title=Out-Ranger of Windsor Forest | years=1715–1717 | after=Denzil Onslow}}

{{succession box | before=Richard Hampden | title=Teller of the Exchequer | years=1718–1741 | after=Horatio Walpole}}

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{{s-bef | before=The Lord Onslow}}

{{s-ttl | title=Lord Lieutenant of Surrey | years=1717–1740}}

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{{s-ttl | title=Custos Rotulorum of Surrey | years=1737–1740}}

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{{succession box | title=Baron Onslow | before=Richard Onslow | after=Richard Onslow | years=1717–1740}}

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Category:1679 births

Category:1740 deaths

Category:People educated at Eton College

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Category:English MPs 1702–1705

Category:English MPs 1705–1707

Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies

Category:British MPs 1707–1708

Category:British MPs 1708–1710

Category:British MPs 1710–1713

Category:British MPs 1713–1715

Category:British MPs 1715–1722

Category:Lord-lieutenants of Surrey

Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron