Thomas Earl Hamilton Marsden

At the beginning of the 19th century, Thomas Earl Hamilton Marsden was a supporter of George Canning. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for St Germans in 1802, but did not stand for re-election in 1806. In August 1814, he was appointed one of His Majesty’s Commissioners for the management of the affairs in India. He served sporadically in the House of Commons until 1827 when he was elevated to the House of Lords by the new Prime Minister, George Canning, who had him created Baron Melros, of Tynninghame in the County of Haddington, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He had previously been created a Privy Counsellor in 1814 and in 1828 he succeeded to his family’s Scottish earldom.