# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Estcourt, Thomas Henry Sutton Sotheron

​ESTCOURT, THOMAS HENRY SUTTON SOTHERON (1801–1876), statesman, was the eldest son of Thomas Grimston Bucknall Estcourt of Estcourt, Gloucestershire, M.P. for Devizes from 1805 to 1826, and for the university of Oxford from 1827 to 1847, by Eleanor, daughter of James Sutton of New Park, Wiltshire. The family of Estcourt has been seated at Estcourt, near Tetbury, ever since 1330, and Bucknall Estcourt has greatly increased its importance by his marriage, which gave him the chief influence over the borough of Devizes. Bucknall Estcourt was one of the best known tory members of the House of Commons during the first half of the nineteenth century. He always refused to take office, and regarded the honour of representing the university of Oxford in parliament as being the highest in any one's grasp. With his colleague, Sir Robert Inglis, he persistently opposed every attempt at parliamentary or religious reform in the name of the university. Thomas Henry Sutton Estcourt was born on 4 April 1801, and was educated at Harrow and at Oriel College, Oxford, where be entered 11 May 18l8, and was a leading undergraduate in the days of Copleston, Keble, and Whately. In Michaelmas term 1823, when he was only twenty-one, he was placed in the first class in classics at the same time as his future friends, Lord Ashley, afterwards seventh earl of Shaftesbury, and the Hon. George Howard, afterwards earl of Carlisle and viceroy of Ireland. He proceeded B.A. 1823 and M.A. 1826, and was created D.C.L. 24 June 1857. He was destined for a political career, and after making the grand tour he was elected M.P. for Marlborough in 1829. On 21 Aug. 1830 he married a very wealthy heiress, Lucy Sarah, only daughter of Admiral Frank Sotheron of Kirklinton, Nottinghamshire, and Darrington Hall, Yorkshire, and in 1839 he took the name of Sotheron in lieu of his own on succeeding to the latter property. In November 1835 he again entered parliament as M.P. for Devizes, after a very close election, and maintained this seat until 1844, when he was elected without opposition as M.P. for North Wiltshire, and retained that seat till 1865. He was soon known as one of the most promising tory members of the House of Commons; but he had inherited his father's disinclination for office, and thought he did enough for his party by speaking frequently in the house. On his father's death, in 1853, he resumed his paternal name of Estcourt, and in 1858, at the earnest request of his friend Lord Derby, he consented to take office, and was sworn of the privy council and appointed president of the poor law board. He showed himself a competent official, and in March 1859 he consented to succeed Spencer Walpole as home secretary. The government did not, however, hold together, and in four months Estcourt was glad to retire from office. He withdrew altogether from public life in 1863, after a paralytic seizure. He died 6 Jan. 1876, when he left Estcourt to a younger brother, the Rev. Edmund Hiley Bucknall Estcourt, and Darrington Hall to his nephew, George Thomas John Sotheron-Estcourt, M.P. for North Wiltshire.
[Times, 8 Jan. 1876; Burke's Landed Gentry; Dod's Electoral Facts and Parliamentary Companion; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]
H. M. S.