Thomas Hervey (politician)

Thomas Hervey (20 January 1699 – 1775), of Bond Street, London, was an English pamphleteer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1733 to 1747.

[2] He was thus denied what he desired, a post in the army; and gave himself up to drink, with the result that, as his allowance from his father was only £120 per annum, he ‘many, many times wanted a dinner.’ At an early age he was engaged in two duels, and was nearly involved in a third.

[4] In 1737, the wife of Sir Thomas Hanmer, 4th Baronet, a considerable heiress, left her husband and put herself under Hervey's protection.

She also asked to Hanmer to leave to Hervey her principal estate of Barton, Suffolk, which he had acquired absolutely under their marriage settlement.

[4] Hervey's mother disinherited him for his refusal to separate himself from Colonel Thomas Norton, his colleague in the representation of Bury St. Edmunds.

His only explanation was ‘Jesus knows my thoughts, one day I blaspheme and pray the next’ which prompted Horace Walpole to say ‘Tom Hervey is quite mad’.