Background
Thomas Henry Sutton Sotheron Estcourt was born on 4 April 1801, the eldest son of Thomas Grimston Bucknall Estcourt, of Estcourt, in Gloucestershire, who was Tory M.P. for Devizes from 1805 to 1827 and M.P. for Oxford Uni-versity between 1827 and 1847; and of Eleanor, daughter of James Sutton, of New Park, Wiltshire.
Education
He was educated at Harrow and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first-class honors degree in classics in 1822, at the same time as his friend Lord Ashley, later the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. Estcourt then completed a grand tour of Europe.
Career
After returning home, he became M.P. for Marlborough in 1829. In 1839 Estcourt inherited the latter estate and for a time adopted the name Sotheron in place of Estcourt (he reassumed his paternal name in 1855). In 1835 he became M.P. for Devizes, a seat that he held until 1844, when he was returned without opposition as M.P. for North Wiltshire. He held the North Wiltshire seat until 1865.
He was considered a talented Tory M.P. but seemed disinclined to hold office. In 1858 he did agree, at the request of the fourteenth Earl of Derby, to become president of the Poor Law Board; he was also sworn in as a member of the Privy Council. He proved an efficient politician, and he briefly succeeded Spencer Walpole as home secretary in March 1859. This office ended in June 1859, however, with the collapse of the Derby ministry. Estcourt willingly retired from office; and in 1863 he withdrew entirely from public life as a result of illness.
Connections
In 1830 he married Lucy Sarah, the only daughter of Admiral Frank Sotheron, of Kirklinton, Nottinghamshire, and Darrington Hall, Yorkshire.
He died childless on 6 January 1876, leaving his property to a younger brother and a nephew. Today he is a largely forgotten political figure.