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Lichfield Elections

Elections in Lichfield during the middle of the eighteenth century were contests fuelled with excitement and rhetoric opposing the ‘controlling interest’ of the Gower party. In the 1740s the Leveson-Gower family defected from the Tory party and united with Admiral Lord Anson and his brother Thomas Anson of Shugborough in the Whig cause. The corporation of Lichfield remained Tory and so from 1745 onwards local elections in Lichfield were hotly contested with huge expenses spent to rally support on either side.

The 1747 election cost the Gower-Anson party around £20,000. In an attempt to reduce the costs of securing support, from the late 1740s Thomas Gilbert, the agent in Lichfield for the Gower–Anson party, pursued a policy of buying up properties when they became available to generate freeholder votes. By doing this, it was possible at election time to sublet these properties to create additional burgage votes. Documents in the Sutherland Papers reveal that Gilbert hoped this strategy would limit the expense of securing votes through outright bribery and free food and drink.

In 1753 Richard Leveson-Gower died and a relation of the Gower family, Henry Vernon, stood for Gower’s Lichfield seat in the 1753 by-election. However, Henry was defeated at the Poll by his opponent Sir Thomas Gresley, who benefited from the active support of the town’s Corporation. The Gowers and Ansons successfully petitioned Parliament to annul the victory on account of bribery and corruption.

The success of this strategy resulted in victories for the Gower-Anson candidates in the 1754 election and the 1761 election was the last contested election until 1799. The Gowers did not control all the votes, but enough to make the enormous expense of a contest too great a risk for any opponent.

Click here to see Lichfield Elections documents in the Sutherland Papers
Click here to see a list of further reading on the English political system, Staffordshire elections and politics