Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds

Thomas Osborne
Duke of Leeds
Thomas Osborne
Detail Titles and styles 1st Viscount Osborne (1673), 1st Viscount Latimer (1673), 1st Earl of Danby (1674), 1st Marquess of Carmarthen (1689), 1st Duke of Leeds (1694)
Father	Sir Edward Osborne, 1st Baronet
Mother	Anne Walmesley
Born	(1632-02-20)20 February 1632
Died	12 July 1712(1712-07-12) (aged 80)

Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, KG (20 February 1632 – 26 July 1712), English politician who was part of the 'Immortal Seven' group that invited William III, Prince of Orange to depose James II of England as monarch during the Glorious Revolution. He was commonly known as Lord Danby and Marquess of Carmarthen when he was a prominent political figure, served in a variety of offices under Kings Charles II and William III of England. He was a prominent politician who had fallen out of favour due to corruption and other scandals but was restored to prominence under William

He was the son of Sir Edward Osborne, Bart. of Kiveton, Yorkshire, and his second wife Anne Walmesley, widow of Thomas Middleton; she was a niece of Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby. Thomas Osborne was born in 1632. He was the grandson of Sir Hewett Osborne and great-grandson of Sir Edward Osborne, Lord Mayor of London, who, according to the accepted account, while apprentice to Sir William Hewett, clothworker and lord mayor in 1559, made the fortunes of the family by leaping from London Bridge into the river and rescuing Anne (d. 1585), the daughter of his employer, whom he afterwards married.

Thomas's father was a staunch Royalist who served as Vice President of the Council of the North. Thomas's elder half-brother Edward was killed in an accident in 1638, when the roof of the family home collapsed on him; according to a family legend, Thomas survived because he had been searching for his cat under a table at the time of the disaster. Their father, a loving parent, is said never to have fully recovered from the loss.