Thomas Jodrell Phillips was born 4 October 1807 in Manchester, and was baptised at St Peter's Church (since demolished) on 9 November.
His elder brother, Harry Shakespear Phillips, born 1805, pursued a military career, mostly with the 53rd Foot where two of his maternal uncles had served.
Harry joined as an officer on a purchased commission achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was made Companion of the Order of the Bath.
In the summer of that year he spent the holidays in the Lake District as part of party from Cambridge with friends Charles Wordsworth and William Tyrrell.
He is recorded as one of the initial supporters of the formation of the Statistical Society in 1833, chaired by Robert Malthus, and gave the Athenaeum Club as his address.
[2][19][20] His legal experience was brought to bear as he established his right to the income from the sale of timber from his newly acquired estates in Cheshire and Derbyshire against apportionment to other beneficiaries of the will.
In 1872 he wrote to the governors of St George's Hospital, giving, at length and in detail his views on healthcare provision for the poor and those more able to pay something towards related costs.
[24][25][26] He was also a subscriber to, and lifetime governor of, the Metropolitan Free Hospital and wrote letters to the Pall Mall Gazette and Daily News in remonstrance at the dismissal of Dr. John Chapman for publicly criticising inadequate out-patient facilities there.
[22][36] Phillips Jodrell expressed reservations about funding a facility where there was no clear support for paying its staff and, despite Hooker's assurance that he might use it himself, there is no evidence that he actually did.
[26] In April 1877 the novelist Henry James, then aged 34, wrote to his sister, Alice, and described a dinner engagement with the 70-year-old Phillips Jodrell at his Stratton Street home, overlooking the garden of Devonshire House.
James stated:He is an old bachelor of fortune & culture a liberal, charitable, a retired fox hunter, a valetudinarian, & friend of many Americans of 40 years ago.
[13] In 1887, a 21-year lease of coal seams within his lands in and near his native Yeardsley refers to him as resident at The Priory, Roehampton and being of "unsound mind".