[2][3] His instruments are some of the oldest surviving Irish violins, one of which is housed as part of a collection in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

Father Greaven, an expert on 18th and 19th century Irish violin makers, thought that he was a foreigner who had settled down in Dublin in early life.

It has been suggested that many of these families were originally close neighbours or even related to each other, explaining why so many of them ended up in the same part of Dublin city and subsequently apprenticed to one another.

[8] Molineux likely began a formal apprenticeship around the age of 14, which would have taken at least 7 years to complete, as was required by the Carpenters' Guild of the City of Dublin in those days.

Based on his earliest identified instrument, his apprenticeship probably took place some time between 1710 and 1739 in an area of Dublin then known as Christchurch Yard (now part of the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral).

[16] It was also an area that was to become synonymous with violin making in 18th-century Dublin, attracting other notable luthier families such as the Neal's, Dunn's, Ward's and Perry's.

Molineux died on 25 January of 1757, his obituary recorded in Faulkner's Dublin Journal as "Death: In Christchurch-yard, Mr. Thomas Molineaux, Fiddle-maker".

[22] It is not known if he inherited this trait from his teacher, from the instruments of other makers such as Jacob Stainer and Richard Duke, or from another instrument-making tradition in the area such as pipemaking.