Blore was born at
Ashbourne,
Derbyshire, on 1 December 1764. He received his education at
the grammar school there, and afterwards became a solicitor at
Derby. He then moved to
Hopton to take over the management of the affairs of
Philip Eyre Gell. After Eyre Gell's death in 1795 he left for London and entered the
Middle Temple, though he was never
called to the bar. In 1798 at
Stapleford, Hertfordshire, he married the poet Dorothy Milnes (daughter and co-heir of William Milnes of Aldercar Park and widow of Eyre Gell). During a residence at
Benwick Hall, near
Hertford, he made extensive collections relating to the topography and antiquities of
Hertfordshire. These filled three folio volumes of closely written manuscript, which formed the nucleus of
Robert Clutterbuck's history of the county. Afterwards Blore lived successively at Mansfield Woodhouse, at Burr House near Bakewell, at
Manton in Rutland, and at
Stamford. The
latter borough he unsuccessfully contested in the
Whig interest, and he also edited for a brief period from 1809
John Drakard's
Stamford News. He died in London 10 November 1818, and was buried in
St Mary on Paddington Green Church, where a stone bearing the following
inscription was erected: Sacred to the memory of Thomas Blore, Gentleman, of the honourable society of the Middle Temple and member of the
Antiquarian Society, whose days were embittered and whose life was shortened by intense application. He died 10 November 1818, aged 63 years. He was father of the architect
Edward Blore. ==Works==