THISTLETHWAYTE, Thomas (1779-1850), of Southwick Park and Norman Court, Hants.

Thistlethwayte, described by Viscount Palmerston as ‘a very stupid but respectable young man possessing considerable property near Portsmouth’ and whose father had represented the county 1780-90, was induced to contest Hampshire as a ministerial candidate in 1806. Success was hard won and he had to sell his Norman Court estate to meet expenses. He voted for Brand’s motion, 9 Apr. 1807, but no speech is known. With the transfer of the government interest to his opponents after the dissolution of 1807 he prudently declined to stand again. Although he had been a principal in the intensely partisan contest of 1806, it seems to have been generally recognized that he was not a man of pronounced political views, and at the by-election of 1808, so Jane Austen was told, Thomas Freeman Heathcote, backed by Thistlethwayte’s former adversaries, offered to stand down in his favour. Thistlethwayte, however, declined, ‘acknowledging himself still smarting under the payment of late electioneering costs’. He died 14 Sept. 1850.1Lytton Bulwer, Palmerston, i. 58; Gent. Mag. (1850), ii. 550; R. W. Chapman, Jane Austen’s Letters, 233.