Thomas Willoughby, 1st Baron Middleton

His father, who preferred to use this aberrant spelling of the family name, was a mathematician and naturalist but died shortly after his son's birth.

[1] In August 1676, Willoughby's mother married Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet, MP, and the family moved to Wanstead in Essex.

In 1688 on the early death of his brother, Francis, he succeeded to the baronetcy, and inherited the estates at Middleton, Warwickshire and at Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire.

He was returned unopposed as Tory MP for Nottinghamshire at the 1705 English general election through an electoral pact with the Whig John Thornhagh.

He was absent from the vote on the new speaker, and hardly left his mark in the Parliament, although he was named to draft a bill concerning the Trent navigation on 20 November 1705.

For much of the parliament, both MPs were caught up in a dispute with the Duke of Newcastle over depredations of royal deer in Sherwood Forest.

[1] At the 1710 British general election, Willoughby virtually handed over his seat at Nottinghamshire to William Levinz, and was returned as Tory MP for Newark.