Thomas Hildyard

A carte-de-visite portrait of Thomas Hildyard (1821-1888), who was twice elected as the Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire South.

Born on 8 April 1821, Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard was the son of Colonel Thomas Blackborne Thoroton Hildyard of Flintham Hall and his wife Anne Catherine née White. His mother was heiress of Sir Robert D'Arcy Hildyard, and his father had assumed the surname Hildyard in addition to Thoroton in 1815 in connection with his inheriting the Hildyard family's estates around Winestead Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Following his education at Eton and Christchurch, Oxford, in 1846 Hildyard was elected the Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire South, a seat he held until 1852. He was re-elected in 1866 and continued to represent the constituency until his retirement in 1885.

On 3 May 1842 at St George’s Hanover Square he married Anne Margaret (‘Nina’) Rochfort, second daughter of Colonel John Staunton Rochfort of Clogrennane, County Carlow. Their marriage produced three sons and a daughter.

Thomas Thoroton Hildyard ‘formerly of Flintham Hall in the County of Nottingham but late of 11 Moreton-gardens South Kensington’ died, aged 66, on 19 March 1888 at 11 Moreton Gardens. He left an estate valued at £4555.

‘Mr Hildyard was a Justice of the Peace for Notts, of which county he was high sheriff in 1863. He was also for some time chairman of the Notts Quarter Sessions and was formerly major of the South Notts Yeomanry Cavalry. Deceased’s connection with the county as one of its Parliamentary representatives extended over a lengthy period.’ He was ‘a regular attendant at various political and other gatherings in the county and […] was an ardent supporter of the agricultural interest’ (Sheffield Independent, 20 March 1888).

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 22 May 1861.