Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk

Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk, 7th Earl of Berkshire (11 January 1721 – 3 February 1783)^[1] was a British peer, styled Hon. Thomas Howard until 1779.

Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk.

Life

A younger son of Henry Howard, 11th Earl of Suffolk, he was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and received his MA in 1741.^[2] Called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1744, he succeeded his elder brother William Howard, Viscount Andover as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Castle Rising in 1747. He represented Castle Rising until 1768, when he was returned for Malmesbury; he continued there until 1774, when he sat for Mitchell. He left the House of Commons in 1779, when he succeeded his great-nephew Henry as Earl of Suffolk. He became a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1779.^[1]

Upon his death in 1783, he was succeeded by a distant cousin, John.^[3]

Ashtead Park, Surrey - Howard family seat to 1789

Family

On 13 April 1747, Howard married Elizabeth Kingscote (b. 7 Mar 1721/22, d. 22 Jun 1769) on 13 August 1747 at Temple Church, London, by whom he had one daughter:^[3]

• Lady Diana Howard (23 July 1748 – 20 June 1816), married Sir Michael le Fleming, 4th Baronet

The earl also had a natural daughter, Margaret Southwell, who on 27 March 1794 married, in Calcutta, Sir George Abercrombie Robinson, 1st Baronet with whom she had seven sons and a daughter.^[4]