Constituency Dates
Durham City 1698 – 1701, 1702 – 1727
Family and Education
b. ?1666 (aft. 8 Sept.),1Genealogist, n.s. xiv. 54, 57-58. 5th s. of Nicholas Conyers of Boulby, Yorks. N.R., and South Biddick, co. Dur., being o.s. by his 3rd w. Margaret, da. and coh. of Nicholas Freville of Hardwick, co. Dur., wid. of Thomas Lambton, gov. of Leeward Is. educ. Trinity, Oxf. 13 May 1684, aged 17; M. Temple 1686. m. (lic. 25 June 1690) Elizabeth, da. and h. of Thomas Hall of Elemore, 1da. who; m. George Baker.
Offices Held

Equerry to Prince George of Denmark 1704 – 06.

Address
Main residence: Elemore, nr. Durham.
biography text

Thomas Conyers, of an old Yorkshire family, having acquired through marriage an estate near Durham, represented the borough as a Tory in every Parliament but one between 1698 and 1727. Re-elected unopposed with his son-in-law, George Baker, in 1715, he voted against the Administration in all recorded divisions. In 1717 he and John Hedworth, the county Member, successfully promoted a bill for improving Sunderland harbour and deepening the river Wear. Conyers was ‘very warm’ in opposing a motion, made on 6 Apr., to allow the Newcastle representatives to put their case against the bill, and ‘confounded mad’ when the motion was passed.2E. Hughes, N. Country Life in 18th Cent. 293-4, 297. Before the new session in 1718 William Cotesworth, a leading local Whig, wrote to Sunderland:318 Oct. 1718, Sunderland (Blenheim) mss. ‘I am upon a project for making the two citizens for Durham [i.e. Conyers and his son-in-law] either stay at home this session or behave themselves better than they did the last’. Again returned after a contest in 1722, he did not stand in 1727, dying 4 Oct. 1728.

Author
R.S.L.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
Notes
  • 1. Genealogist, n.s. xiv. 54, 57-58.
  • 2. E. Hughes, N. Country Life in 18th Cent. 293-4, 297.
  • 3. 18 Oct. 1718, Sunderland (Blenheim) mss.