n
a member of one of the two main political parties in Britain from the 1670s until the 1830s. The Tories were originally a group of politicians who wanted the Roman Catholic James, Duke of York (later James II ) to be allowed to become king of England. They were powerful for various periods during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1830s, the Tories developed into the Conservative Party and the name is widely used as an informal alternative name for the Conservative Party.