title: Thomas Foley (died 1677)
text: # Thomas Foley (died 1677)
  
  Thomas Foley (1617–1677) was an English ironmaster and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1677.
  
  ## Life
  
  Foley was the eldest son of Richard Foley and his second wife Alice Brindley, herself the daughter of Sir William Brindley of Willenhall. His father was a prominent Midlands ironmaster of Stourbridge. Foley took over his father's business and made great profits from it in the 1650s and 1660s, which he used to buy estates. He was appointed High Sheriff of Worcestershire for 1656–57.
  
  In 1659 he was elected Member of Parliament for Worcestershire in the Third Protectorate Parliament. He was elected MP for Bewdley in 1660 for the Convention Parliament. In 1673 he was elected MP for Bewdley in a by-election to the Cavalier Parliament.
  
  Foley built Witley Court. In the late 1660s, he founded a bluecoat school at Stourbridge known as Old Swinford Hospital, which he endowed in his will.
  
  Foley married Anne Browne, daughter of John Browne. They had four sons and two daughters:
  
  * Thomas Foley, whose granddaughter Elizabeth Foley married Robert Harley, later Prime Minister.
  * Paul Foley, father of two politicians
  * Philip Foley
  * Samuel Foley
  * Martha Foley
  * Sarah Foley
  
  He handed his business over to his sons.
  
  