Thomas Bliss was an English Tory  politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 in two periods between 1698 and 1708.

Bliss was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Maidstone

Maidstone (UK Parliament constituency)

Maidstone was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returned two Members of Parliament from 1552 until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member...

 in 1698 and was returned unopposed in January 1701. In November 1701 he was re-elected despite a smear campaign which accused him of Jacobitism

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

. In July 1702 he was defeated in the poll, but the election was declared void because of corruption by the Whigs

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

and the writ for the constituency was suspended until 1704. Bliss was re-elected for Maidstone in 1704 and held the seat until 1708 when he did not stand. His political battles continued in the borough where he was re-admitted as alderman in 1710 but declared as not chosen by the Whig majority in 1711.