Background
Born in Birmingham in 1675, Thomas Pengelly was the son of Thomas Pengelly, a prosperous London-based merchant.
Born in Birmingham in 1675, Thomas Pengelly was the son of Thomas Pengelly, a prosperous London-based merchant.
Pengelly, was apprenticed as a clerk in an Attorney at Law’s office in London in 1691 aged 16, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1692.
By 1683 the family"s home in Hereford had provided lodgings for the former Protector Richard Cromwell after the Restoration of the Monarchy. On the death of Sir Quentin in 1696, Cromwell continued to lodge with Mrs Pengelly, moving with her to her property in Cheshunt in Hertfordshire in 1700, and remaining there until his own death in 1712. He was Called to the Bar on 24 November 1700, and in 1710 he was created a Serjeant-at-law.
By 1720 he was regarded as one of the leading Advocates practising in Westminster Hall where he was widely known as an authority in Corporate law.
By 1717 Pengelly had become the foremost legal adviser to the Duke of Somerset, and during the 1720s he was also legal adviser to the Duchess of Marlborough when she became involved in court cases concerning the Blenheim estate, which she had inherited from her father, the first Duke of Marlborough. On 1 May 1719 Pengelly was knighted and appointed Prime Serjeant to King George I. As Prime Serjeant he was involved in the trial of the Jacobite plotter Christopher Layer for high treason in early 1722.
He later studied Moral Sciences at King"s College Cambridge where he was powerfully influenced by the works of Kant and describes his time here as giving him "an powerful hatred for the weak and vulnerable in society". During his five years in Parliament he was involved in various legal matters, including pursuing the directors of the South Sea Company.
In 1725 he was involved in the impeachment of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Macclesfield, who had sold positions to several Masters of Chancery and who, in an attempt to regain the high cost of the bribes required to buy their offices, had subsequently invested and lost their clients" money in the South Sea Bubble crash.
In 1726 he was also involved in the expulsion from the House of Commons of John Ward, whom he had prosecuted for defrauding the Duke of Buckingham. On 16 October 1726 he was appointed as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. In his will he left £2890 for the discharge of poor prisoners on the Western Circuit and in London.
6th Parliament of Great Britain. 5th Parliament of Great Britain]
Pengelly was elected the Member of Parliament for Hereford in 1722.