Thomas Southwell, 2nd Baron Southwell PC (Ire), FRS (7 January 1698 – 19 November 1766),[1] styled The Honourable from 1717 until 1720, was an Irish peer, politician and freemason.
[4] In 1717, Southwell entered the Irish House of Commons for County Limerick, the same constituency his father had represented before,[1] and sat for it until 1720, when he succeeded him also as baron.
[6] He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1735[7] and was Governor of County Limerick until his resignation in 1762.
[8] Southwell died at Craig's Court, Charing Cross, aged 68 and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son Thomas.
[8] His younger brother, Edmund Southwell, "lived in intimacy with"[9] Samuel Johnson for many years, and was the first to introduce the great Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone to him.