Thomas Rider (MP for Kent)

Thomas Rider (20 August 1785 – 6 August 1847) was a British Whig{{cite book

|last=Stooks Smith

|first=Henry.

|editor=Craig, F. W. S.

|editor-link=F. W. S. Craig

|title=The Parliaments of England

|orig-date=1844–1850

|edition=2nd

|year=1973

|publisher=Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn=0-900178-13-2

|pages=[https://archive.org/details/parliamentsofeng0000smit/page/157 157, 158]

}} politician who held a seat in the House of Commons from 1831 to 1835. He was the eldest son of Ingram Rider of Leeds, Yorkshire and educated at Charterhouse School (1776) and University College, Oxford (1783).{{cite web| url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/rider-thomas-1765-1847| title= RIDER, Thomas (1765-1847), of Boughton Monchelsea Place, nr. Maidstone, Kent|publisher= History of Parliament|accessdate = 19 June 2013}}

Offices held

He was appointed High Sheriff of Kent for 1829–30. He was elected at the 1831 general election as a member of parliament (MP) for Kent,{{London Gazette

|issue= 18805

|date=20 May 1831

|page=972

}} and held the seat until the constituency was divided under the Reform Act 1832. At the 1832 general election he was returned as an MP for the new Western division of Kent,{{London Gazette

|issue= 19009

|date=1 January 1833

|page=4

}} but at the 1835 election he polled poorly,{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|author-link= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885

|orig-date=1977

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-26-4

|pages=403, 406

}} and withdrew from the election at the end of the first day of polling. At the 1837 general election he contested the Eastern division of Kent, but failed to unseat either of the two sitting Conservative Party MPs.