Person:John Leveson-Gower (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, PC (10 August 1694 – 25 December 1754), was an English Tory politician and peer who twice served as Lord Privy Seal from 1742 to 1743 and 1744 to 1754. Leveson-Gower is best known for his political career in the British Parliament, where he sat in the House of Lords as a leading member of the Tory Party before defecting to serve in various Whig-dominated government ministries until his death.

Born on 9 August 1694 in London, England into the prominent Leveson-Gower family, he was educated at Westminster School and the University of Oxford before developing an interest in politics and making an effort to cultivate a parliamentary support base in the county of Staffordshire during the 1720's. After his father died in 1709, Leveson-Gower inherited his peerage as the Baron Gower and eventually took his seat in the House of Lords.

In 1742, Leveson-Gower started serving in the Carteret ministry as Lord Privy Seal. Though he resigned the next year, in 1744 Leveson-Gower again served in the same position as part of the Whig-led Broad Bottom ministry. He soon became a devoted supporter of Henry Pelham and his brother the Duke of Newcastle; during the Jacobite rising of 1745, he remained loyal to the Hanoverians, which led George II to grant him the title of Earl Gower.

During the 1747 British general election, seven parliamentary constituencies which were under Leveson-Gower's control were contested by rival Tory candidates. Despite spending large sums of money from his vast financial estate, he only managed to retain two constituencies, Stafford and Lichfield. Leveson-Gower subsequently refused to resign twice in 1751 and 1754, before dying in office on 25 December 1754 at his London townhouse.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.