Thomas Gilbert (c. 1719 – 18 December 1798) was a British lawyer, soldier, land agent and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1773 to 1794.

In 1765 the title Sinecure Place of Comptroller of the Great Wardrobe was given to him, and he kept it until it was eliminated by Burke's bill which reformed the civil list.

In 1778, while Britain was still at war with the American colonies, he proposed to parliament a tax of twenty-five per cent should be enforced upon all government places and pensions.

These factors led to an increase in the poor population and wealthy landowners turned to Gilbert.

It proposed grouping many parishes together, for tax purposes, and imposing an additional charge for the use of turnpikes on Sundays.

A study of Thomas Gilbert (and his younger brother John) is in Agents of Revolution, written by Peter Lead and published by the Centre for Local History, University of Keele in 1989.