Thomas Montgomery was an Irish politician.

He was born in 1700 to Colonel Alexander Montgomery

Alexander Montgomery (1667–1722)

Colonel Alexander Montgomery was M.P. for County Monaghan from 1713 to 1722.He was High Sheriff of County Monaghan in 1718. He was a captain of dragoons in the Monaghan Militia in 1708.His father was Major John Montgomery of Crogan, County Donegal...

 M.P. for County Monaghan, of Ballyleck, County Monaghan, and Elizabeth Cole, (married 1696), daughter of Colonel Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...

 of Mount Florence, Florencecourt

Florencecourt

Florencecourt is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 135 people. It lies within the Fermanagh District Council area. Historically the area was called Mullanashangan ....

, County Fermanagh

County Fermanagh

Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....

. He was elected Member of Parliament

Parliament of Ireland

The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed in Dublin from 1297 until 1800. In its early mediaeval period during the Lordship of Ireland it consisted of either two or three chambers: the House of Commons, elected by a very restricted suffrage, the House of Lords in which the lords...

 (MP) for Lifford

Lifford

Lifford is the county town of County Donegal, Ireland. It is the administrative capital of the county and the seat of Donegal County Council, although the town of Letterkenny is often mistaken for fulfilling this role...

, County Donegal

County Donegal

County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...

 in 1729 until his death in April 1761, at the age of 61.

He married an Englishwoman, Mary Franklin (died April 1758), against his father's wishes and was disinherited. Their children were the American Revolutionary War hero, Major-General Richard Montgomery

Richard Montgomery

Richard Montgomery was an Irish-born soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a brigadier-general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is most famous for leading the failed 1775 invasion of Canada.Montgomery was born and raised in Ireland...

; Colonel Alexander Montgomery

Alexander Montgomery (1720–1800)

Colonel Alexander John Montgomery was an Irish politician.He was born in 1720, the eldest son of Thomas Montgomery, M.P. for Lifford, and his wife Mary Franklin...

, M.P. for County Donegal in 1768; John Montgomery (1728 – 1787), a merchant in Lisbon, Portugal and Sarah Montgomery, who became Lady Ranelagh after marrying Charles Wilkinson Jones, the 4th Viscount Ranelagh.

Up to 1729 his first cousin Colonel Alexander Montgomery

Alexander Montgomery (1686–1729)

Colonel Alexander Montgomery was an Irish soldier and politician.Montgomery of the Scots Greys cavalry, lived in Convoy House, Convoy, County Donegal, Ireland. He was born in 1686, the second son of Major John Montgomery and his first wife Catherine, the daughter of the Reverend James Auchinleck...

 shared the parliamentary patronage of Lifford, County Donegal with the Creighton family, the Earls of Erne. There is an agreement in the Erne

Earl Erne

Earl Erne, of Crom Castle in the County of Fermanagh, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1789 for John Creighton, 2nd Baron Erne, who had earlier represented Lifford in the Irish House of Commons...

 papers (held in the Northern Ireland Public Records Office) dated 1727 between Alexander Montgomery and General David Creighton about the sharing of Lifford Corporation and its representation in the Irish House of Commons, to which it sent two MPs. One of the articles of agreement was that, if Montgomery should die without a son, then his interest should pass to the Creightons. Montgomery was elected as an MP for Donegal County in the General Election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

 held later on in 1727, so General David Creighton and his son and heir, Abraham Creighton

Abraham Creighton, 1st Baron Erne

Abraham Creighton, 1st Baron Erne was an Irish peer and politician.Erne was a major landowner in County Fermanagh. He represented Lifford in the Irish House of Commons from 1727 until 1768, when he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Erne, of Crom Castle in the County of Fermanagh...

, (later the 1st Lord Erne) were returned as the two Lifford MPs. General David Creighton died in 1728 so the Lifford seat was filled by Thomas Montgomery, the nephew of Alexander. On the death of Thomas Montgomery in 1761, full control of the Lifford seats passed to Abraham Creighton.