Thomas Noel, 2nd Viscount Wentworth

At the 1774 general election, Noel successfully contested Leicestershire and was returned as Member of Parliament. However, he had to leave the Commons within a month when he succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father on 31 October.^[2]

On 2 February 1788, Wentworth married Mary Ligonier, Dowager Countess Ligonier, a daughter of Robert Henley, 1st Earl of Northington and widow of Edward Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier (of the second creation). The union did not produce any children, although Wentworth had fathered an illegitimate son, Thomas Noel (1774–1853), who became rector of Kirkby Mallory. There he conducted the marriage ceremony of his cousin, Anne Isabella Milbanke, to Lord Byron in 1815.

Upon his death in 1815 aged 69, Lord Wentworth's viscountcy became extinct, whilst the barony of Wentworth became abeyant between his nephew Hon. Nathaniel Curzon (later Lord Curzon) and his sister, Judith (and after her, her daughter Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron). When Judith died in 1822 and then Lord Curzon died without heirs in 1856, the abeyance was terminated in favour of Anne.