Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess Of Rockingham

Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham, KB, PC (I), was born on 13 November 1693 at Tidmington, Worcestershire. He was the only son of Thomas Watson (later Watson-Wentworth), the third son of Edward Watson, 2nd Baron Rockingham, and his wife Alice Proby, daughter of Sir Thomas Proby, 1st Baronet.

Watson-Wentworth attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 15 May 1707. He received his Master of Arts degree in 1708. In the same year, he purchased Hallfield House near Sheffield.

In 1716, he married Lady Mary Finch, born in 1701 and died in 1761. She was the daughter of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 7th Earl of Winchilsea, and his second wife, Hon. Anne Hatton.

He inherited Wentworth Woodhouse in 1723 upon the death of his father. He undertook remodeling of the house to its current form.

Watson-Wentworth began his political career in the House of Commons, representing his family's borough of Malton after being elected in the 1715 general election. He was elected unopposed in the 1722 general election. Following his father’s death in 1723, he became a prominent figure as the leader of the Whigs in Yorkshire.

In 1725, he was appointed a Knight of the Bath. At the 1727 general election, he was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament for Yorkshire, replacing his previous seat.

In 1728, Watson-Wentworth was elevated to the peerage as Baron Malton, which led to his vacating his seat in the House of Commons. As Lord Malton, he is noted to have deliberately burned most of the manuscripts left by the 17th-century antiquary Richard Gascoigne, an act reportedly influenced by legal advice obtained from his attorney.

He became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1733 and served as Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1733 until 1750. In 1734, he was created Earl of Malton, and in 1746, he was elevated to Marquess of Rockingham. That same year, he inherited the Barony of Rockingham and the Rockingham Castle estate from his cousin, Thomas Watson, 3rd Earl of Rockingham.

Thomas Watson-Wentworth and Lady Mary Finch had nine children: William (born 1718, died the same year), Thomas (1720–1734), Daniel (1724–1730), William, styled Viscount Higham (1728–1739), who died young; Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730–1782), who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain; Lady Anne (died 1769), married William Fitzwilliam, 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam; Lady Mary (1725–1725); another Lady Mary (1727–1798), married John Milbanke; Lady Charlotte Wentworth (1732–1810), who died unmarried; and Lady Henrietta Alicia (born 1737), who eloped and married her footman William Sturgeon in 1764.

Marquess of Rockingham died on 14 December 1750. According to historian Walpole, he died by "drowning in claret." He was interred in York Minster.