THICKNESSE, PHILIP, seventh son of Rev. John Thicknesse, Rector of Farthinghoe, Northants, and Joyce, dau. of Rev. Thomas Blencowe, Rector of Thenford, Northants; b. 10 Aug 1719; in school list 1729; some curious details of his brief career at Westminster, where by the favour of the Head Master he was adm. “a gratis scholar”, are provided in his Memoirs and Anecdotes, 1788, i, 14-20; expelled from the School; apprenticed to Marmaduke Tisdall, apothecary, but did not serve out time; in Georgia with Gen. Oglethorpe 1735-7; served as Lieut. in Independent Co. in Jamaica, commissioned 17 Oct 1737, against the runaway negroes; returned to England 1740; Capt. -Lieut., Brig. Jeffriesís Regt. of Marines Jan. 1741; Lieut. -Governor, Landguard Fort, Suffolk 1753-66; a patron of the painter Thomas Gainsborough 1754-74; imprisoned for three months and fined £300 in 1762 for libelling Francis Vernon (qv), afterwards 1st Earl of Shipbrook (I), the then Col. of the Suffolk Militia; wrote letters in the Crisis denouncing a decision against him by the House of Lords 1775; author Junius Discovered, 1789, in which he identified Junius as John Horne Tooke (qv), and other works; m. 1st, 1742 Maria, only dau. of John Lanoue, Southampton, Hampshire; m. 2nd, 31 Oct 1749 Lady Elizabeth Touchet, eldest dau. of James Touchet, 6th Earl of Castlehaven (I); m. 3rd, 27 Sep 1792 Ann, singer and musician, dau. of Thomas Ford, Clerk of the Arraigns; d. 19 Nov 1792 in a coach near Boulogne, France, while on his way to Paris. DNB.
