11 Facts About Thomas Fowke

Thomas Fowke's great-uncle emigrated to Virginia in 1651, and was closely related to George Mason, 1725 to 1792, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Thomas Fowke was the elder son of Thomas Fowke of Gunstone, South Staffordshire and his second wife Mary.

Thomas Fowke had two sisters, Mary and Martha and his younger brother was Rear-admiral Edmund Thorpe Fowke.

Thomas Fowke began his military career during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702 as an Ensign in Nicholas Lepell's Regiment of Foot, his father being a captain in the same unit.

Peregrine Lascelles, who later served with Thomas Fowke in the 1745 Rising, was a captain in the same regiment.

Thomas Fowke managed to retain his commission, transferring into Whetham's, later 27th Foot, before joining Cotton's Foot, later Somerset Light Infantry in 1716, as a Major.

Thomas Fowke commanded two regiments of dragoons, who fled without firing a shot, and halted only when they reached Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Thomas Fowke was posted to Flanders and became a Major General in 1747, shortly before the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle followed by an appointment as Governor of Gibraltar in 1752.

Thomas Fowke was court martialled for allegedly refusing to provide Byng with soldiers from the Gibraltar garrison; originally suspended for nine months, George II insisted he be dismissed from the army.

Thomas Fowke married twice, first to Elizabeth Ingoldsby, with whom he had a daughter, Theophila Lucy.

Thomas Fowke kept a personal journal and record of correspondence; his papers for the period 1752 to 1755, including his time as Governor of Gibraltar, were acquired by in 2015 by the Lewis Walpole Library, part of Yale University.