Sir William Leveson-Gower, 4th Baronet (c. 1647 – 22 December 1691) was an English landowner and politician from Yorkshire. He added the surname Leveson to his own in 1668, when he inherited the Trentham and Lilleshall estates of his maternal great-uncle, Sir Richard Leveson, making him a major landowner and the progenitor of the Leveson-Gower family. He was a member of several parliaments. Although he began as an enthusiastic supporter of the Court of Charles II, he became noted for his unremitting support for the Exclusion Bills.
Origins and education William Gower was the second son of Sir Thomas Gower, 2nd Baronet and Frances, daughter and coheir of John Leveson. He was educated from the age of 9 at Pocklington School.
The Gowers were middling gentry, active in local affairs, but without connections to the Court. Howevever their estates, though not large, were productive and closely-managed, mainly made up of Yorkshire grazing land. Their hoizons were not merely local, however as Sir Thomas was the Member of Parliament for Malton from 1661 until his death, staying in London whenever required.
Inheritance and wealth
Through his mother, William Gower became heir to the very large Staffordshire and Shropshire estates of the Leveson family. When his uncle, Sir Richard Leveson, died without issue in 1661, his estates had passed initially to Richard Fowler, a great nephew and a minor member of the Shropshire gentry. This line of succession did not last long, as Richard died in 1667 and his last surviving son the following year. Sir Richard Leveson's will provided for a further line of succession, which brought the estates through his sister, Frances Leveson, to William Gower, her son. William added the surname Leveson to his own when he inherited the Leveson estates, which included Trentham and Lilleshall and Sheriffhales. Generally his surname is given as Leveson Gower in documents from this time onwards. The family later adopted hyphenation, which was not the custom in the 17th century.
It was the inheritance of these large landed estates that allowed William Leveson Gower to make a "socially desirable" marriage to Lady Jane Granville, the eldest daughter of the John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. A hostile observer commented of Leveson Gower that he "had a great estate fall to him by chance; but honesty and wit never came by accident." Although the remark is attributed to Andrew Marvell, the satire in which it is found, List of Pensioners in this Parliament, is not included in editions of Marvell's collected works.
Leveson Gower pursued a policy of rapid short-term enrichment in his newly-gained estates, which were almost entirely under leasehold tenancy, usually for long periods of time, from 21 years up to three lifetimes. As leases came to an end, he pushed up the admission fines, payable on renewal, as well as making dramatic rent increases. This policy was restricted for a time by the jointure arrangements of Lady Catherine Leveson, nee Dudley, Sir Richard's widow, who still held substantial lands at Trentham and smaller areas further south and resisted his methods until her death in 1674. Increasing the admission fines alone made him about £40,000 over his ownership of the estates, close to his total income from the annual rents.
The policy clashed with the advice of George Plaxton, a clergyman and sometime estate manager in his employ, whom he presented to the benefice of St Mary's Church, Sheriffhales. Plaxton later reversed William's policy, while working for his son and grandson, as it front-loaded gains at the cost of eroding long-term control. Leveson Gower did manage to expand the Midlands estates slightly by buying land around Sheriffhales in 1688, towards the end of his life. However he was inattentive to the actual condition of the estates and large arrears had built up in the Midlands by the time of his death in 1691, amounting to about half his potential income. He had shown little interest in the quality of either the tenants or the buildings and fixtures of his major estates. On an income of about £2000 a year, Leveson Gower was at the very peak of the landed gentry, and richer than some of the nobility. However more than a third of his income came from the small but better-managed Stittenham estates, which he had inherited only in 1689, where arrears stood at just over £8.
Political ambition
Marriage to Lady Jane Granville opened up a much wider political horizons for Leveson Gower and for his father, Thomas. They had a key to circles within the court and government through Lady Jane's father, the Earl of Bath, who held a formidable range of posts, including Groom of the Stole, keeper of St James's Palace, steward of the Duchy of Cornwall and member of the Privy Council of England. He was on close terms both with Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. As documented in the Sutherland Papers, Thomas Gower wrote to him on family business probably fairly frequently. In 1671, the year before he died, Gower was in London, travelling by sea from Kingston upon Hull, to represent Malton in the House of Commons of England. He observed political life in and from the capital, sending back detailed reports to his son, William. His last important contribution to Parliament was to manage a conference on the assault of an MP, Sir John Coventry. He had been ill throughout this period.
Sir Thomas Gower's death on 3 September 1672 left an opening for Leveson Gower at Malton. However, the Gower's were not dominant in the borough: the representation had traditionally been decided by the Hebblethwaites and the Eure family, then represented by Margaret Danby, nee Eure. Gower himself had only managed to take the seat in 1661 by appealing against the return the return of Margaret's husband, Thomas Danby. Leveson Gower's prospects were greatly enhanced by his court contacts, as Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, a member of the Cabal ministry, wrote to Madam Danby, asking her "to favour Mr. Leveson Gower with her credit in the election." Evidently, the matter had come to royal attention, as in her reply she informed Arlington that: However, the election on 21 Feb. 1673 was botched, with both Leveson Gower and his rival, James Hebblethwaite, returned. The impasse took five years to resolve.
Another opportunity to secure election to Parliament arrived in 1675, when one of the two MPs for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Edward Mainwaring, died, leaving Sir Caesar Colclough as its sole representative. Newcastle was conveniently close to the family's Trentham estate and the Levesons had long had great influence, but their dominance was contested not only by the Mainwarings of Whitmore Hall, but also the Bowyers of Knypersley Hall. The election was hotly contested between Leveson Gower and Sir John Bowyer, whose family had supported Parliament in the English Civil War. It was alleged that Bowyer had personally provoked Leveson Gower and also that Colclough's steward had ordered his tenants to vote for Bowyer, without Colclough's assent. Leveson Gower's influence at Court was counted against him by some electors, with one declaring that he "was greatwith the King and too often at Court, and that he liked him the worse for that." Leveson Gower was elected without incident and only later did Bowyer decide to contest his return. The matter was not resolved in Leveson Gower's favour until 1677. Meanwhile he took up his seat in the Commons.
Summary of Parliamentary career Parliament Dates of Parliament ConstituencyLeveson Gower electedOther memberNotesCavalier Parliament1661—1679Newcastle-under-Lyme21 Apr. 1675Sir Caesar ColcloughModerately active. Leveson Gower was a compliant supporter of the Court.Habeas Corpus Parliament, also called First Exclusion Parliament6 March 1679—12 July 1679Newcastle-under-Lyme6 February 1679Sir Thomas Bellot, BtGenerally a Tory, he voted with the government until the final stages of the Parliament, when he joined the Whig opposition in voting to exclude James, Duke of York from the succession.Second Exclusion Parliament 21 October 1680—18 January 1681Newcastle-under-Lyme1679Sir Thomas Bellot, BtLeveson Gower continued to vote with the Whigs and became one of the most committed to Exclusion, noted as an extreme opponent by James II himself.Oxford Parliament, also called Third Exclusion Parliament 21 March 1681— 28 March 1681Shropshire3 March 1681Hon. Richard NewportVery active, Leveson Gower made an enemy of Leoline Jenkins, the effective government leader, and helped prepare the third Exclusion Bill.Loyal Parliament 19 May 1685—2 July 1687Not elected. Defeated at Newcastle.Edward Mainwaring, William SneydThe replacement of the Newcastle-under-Lyme corporation by a royal-nominated panel made it impossible for Leveson Gower to secure election in James II's Parliament.Convention Parliament 22 January 1689—6 February 1690Newcastle-under-Lyme11 January 1689John LawtonAn active MP, Leveson Gower welcomed the Glorious Revolution, but strongly supported the Church of England.2nd Parliament of William III and Mary II20 March 1690—11 October 1695Newcastle-under-Lyme4 March 1690Sir Thomas Bellot, BtLeveson Gower occupied an ambiguous position in Parliament, sometimes considered a leading figure in a middle party.
Member of Charles II's Parliaments Cavalier Parliament
The History of Parliament records that Leveson Gower was a "moderately active" member of the Cavalier Parliament. He spoke nine times in the House of Commons over a roughly four year period. He was generally seen as a supporter of the Court and an intervention of February 1677 left little doubt of it. Whem James Herbert proposed to grant the king £600,000 for shipbuilding, he was laughed at and Sir Francis Russell countered that a proper report on the state of the Navy was necessary before any sum could be considered. Leveson Gower, however, proposed handing over the whole sum without further ado: On 21 December, the day after the House decided to impeach the Earl of Danby, the king's leading minister, Leveson Gower tried to deflect attention from him towards five imprisoned Catholic peers, who had been swept up in the scare over the fictitious Popish Plot.
Habeas Corpus or First Exclusion Parliament The new parliament that assembled in March 1679 was more suspicious of the king and determined to exclude his Catholic brother James, Duke of York, from the succession. Josiah Wedgwood remarked that "No one could have been elected to this Parliament who was not a denouncer of Catholics." Leveson Gower began the session by speaking obstructively and roughly during the debate on the choice of Speaker, upsetting several younger members, who called aloud: "To the Bar." He continued to support Danby. However, his anti-Catholic views were beginning to clash with his attachment to the Court. His ill-tempered remarks about a suspected Catholic were noted: "being at the sessions, (Leveson Gower) did observe Sir Symen Deg to give the charge more favourably concerning Papists than others and did thereupon tell him that he spoke more like a Jesuit than a Justice." On 27 April, in a debate on "how to preserve the King's Person from the attempts and conspiracies of the Papists," Leveson Gower moved to repeal the exemption given to the Queen's servants from the Test Acts. By the end of the parliament Leveson Gower had joined the opposition. Wedgwood opined:
Second Exclusion Parliament