Thomas Barrett-Lennard (4 October 1788 – 9 June 1856) was a British Whig politician.
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Family and early life
Born in 1788, Barrett-Lennard was the eldest of 12 children of his namesake, Thomas Barrett-Lennard (died 1857)—who himself was the illegitimate son and testamentary heir of his namesake Thomas Barrett-Lennard, 17th Baron Dacre (1717–1786)—and Dorothy née St. Aubyn, daughter of Sir John St. Aubyn, 4th Baronet.
Intended for a political life early on, he was educated at Charterhouse School from 1797 to 1804, and at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1806, and admitted to Inner Temple in 1809. He was guided for political life by the rector of Upminster, John Rose Holden, and his Cambridge contemporary, Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale, who said, of Barrett-Lennard's future, "it is a sort of treason to yourself and your country when you neglect the opportunities fortunes has bestowed on you". He was then sent to Edinburgh for further studies "prior to entering Parliament".
He married twice, first to Margaret Wharton, daughter of Beverley Whig MP John Wharton, in 1815. Upon their marriage, his father granted him £1,200 a year, raising further to £2,000 when the couple travelled to Nice to search for a cure for tuberculosis, from which Margaret later died without issue at the Hotel des Etrangers. He later remarried to Mary Shedden, daughter of Bartlett Bridger Shedden, in 1825. They had five sons before she died in 1844: Thomas (1826–1919); Dacre (1829–1910); St. Aubyn (1831–1866); Charles Edward (1835–1874); and, John (1839–1898).