Nugent, Thomas (1700?–1772), writer and translator, was a native of Ireland, but little is known of the details of his life. He is frequently confused with his namesake (c.1710–1788), the fourth son of Walter Nugent of Carpenterstown, Co. Westmeath. In addition to original writings on Germany, travel, and language, Nugent played an important role in translating into English numerous works of the European enlightenment. Among the first were Claude Lancelot's Greek primers (1746, 1748) and the Abbé Jean Baptiste Dubos's Critical reflections on poetry, painting, and music (1748). Nugent also wrote the Grand tour (1749), a popular work of travel literature on the extended continental tours of British aristocracy. His most famous translation was Montesquieu's Spirit of the laws (1752), which remains the basis of many modern editions. He also translated, from the French, Burlamaqui's works on natural and political law (1745, 1752), Voltaire's Essay on universal history (1759), the Abbé Condillac's Essay on human knowledge (1762), and Rousseau's Emilius (1763). He dedicated Burlamaqui's Principles of natural law to ‘Dr Mead’, probably Richard Mead MD, the owner of the largest private collection of books, manuscripts, statuary, coins, gems, and drawings of the time. The dedication also shows him writing from London's Gray's Inn (4 June 1748), where he appears to have lived throughout his adult life. Nugent translated, too, M. P. Macquer's Roman history (1759) and the French histories of Charles Jean Francis Henault (1762) and the Abbé Velly (1769).
In 1765 he received an honorary LLD from the University of Aberdeen and was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1767). Perhaps his best-known original work was a then-unusual French–English pocket dictionary (1767) which remained in print in various forms into the next century. He also wrote a History of Vandalia (1766–73) and Travels through Germany (1768), dedicated to Elizabeth Percy, duchess of Northumberland and wife of Hugh Percy (qv), duke of Northumberland and former lord lieutenant of Ireland. Subsequently, Nugent translated, from the French, Pierre Jean Grosley's works on Italy (1769) and England (1772). He also translated E. Totze's Present state of Europe (1770), the popular autobiography of Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini (1771), and the Jesuit Joseph Francis Isla's humorous History of the famous preacher Friar Gerund de Campazas (1772). Nugent died 27 April 1772 at his lodgings at Gray's Inn.