| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Bedfordshire | 1747 – 1761 |
Ensign 1 Ft. Gds. 1741, lt. and capt. 1743–5.
After serving in the army Thomas Alston was returned unopposed as a Whig for the county in 1747 as a government supporter. The 2nd Lord Egmont’s electoral survey c. 1749-50 notes on Bedfordshire: ‘Thomas Alston to continue — not an improper man’. He appears to have suffered from fits of insanity. In August 1752 he was confined in Duffield’s madhouse upon ‘very strong affidavits of absurdities he had been guilty of’. He himself insisted that ‘he had been greatly heated of late by drinking, and ... that any extravagancies he might have been guilty of, were owing to that, and to that only’, summoning ‘everybody he knew in town to come and declare his being in his right senses’. He was released on expressing willingness to undergo treatment;1R. Rigby and R. N. Aldworth to Bedford, 22 Aug. 1752, Bedford mss. but on 15 Nov. 1753 Richard Rigby reported to the Duke of Bedford: ‘I hear among friends he has been in a bad way again lately’.2Bedford Corresp. ii. 138. He died 18 July 1774.