Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford

Stafford was a son of John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694–1754) and his wife Lady Evelyn Pierrepont. His maternal grandparents were Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull and his first wife Lady Mary Feilding. Mary was a daughter of William Feilding, 3rd Earl of Denbigh and his wife Mary King. His father was a prominent Tory politician who became the first major Tory to enter government since the succession of George I of Great Britain, joining the administration of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville in 1742. Gower was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.[1]

Lodge at Lilleshall Abbey, home of the Leveson family after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Coat of arms of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, KG, PC

Stafford was elected to parliament in 1744. With the death of his elder brother in 1746, he became known by the courtesy title of Viscount Trentham until he succeeded his father as Earl Gower in 1754. He built the earlier Lilleshall Hall, converting a 17th-century house located in the village of Lilleshall into a country residence around the late 1750s.

Stafford was associated with the faction of the John Russell, Duke of Bedford, who was his brother-in-law, and as a member of that faction, called the "Bloomsbury Gang", was given many governmental positions. Following Bedford's death in 1771, Gower became leader of the group, and as Lord President in the administration of Frederick North, Lord North, he was a key supporter of a hard-line policy towards the American colonists. Between 1775–1778, Stafford proceeded to make substantial alterations to his home at Trentham Hall based on the designs by Henry Holland.

By 1779, Gower resigned from the cabinet being frustrated by what he saw as the North administration's inept handling of the American Revolutionary War. And when North resigned in March 1782, Gower was approached to form a ministry, but he refused, and he refused subsequent overtures from both Lord Shelburne and the Fox-North coalition to enter the government. Instead, he became a key figure in bringing about the fall of the Fox-North coalition, and was rewarded with the position of Lord President once again in the new administration of William Pitt the Younger. Although he soon exchanged this office for that of Lord Privy Seal, and gradually began to withdraw from public affairs, he remained a cabinet minister until his retirement later in 1794. He was elected F.S.A. on 28 April 1784. In 1786, he was created Marquess of Stafford as a reward for his services.[1]

In 1799 he (or his immediate family benefit trust) was estimated the fifth-wealthiest small family unit in Britain, owning £2.1M (equivalent to £207,800,000 in 2019), having assets in land, mining and arterial canal-toll rights having speculatively invested in the latter projects, much of which in Staffordshire's Black Country.[2]

He died at Trentham Hall, Staffordshire, on 26 October 1803.[1] He was the last surviving member of the Bloomsbury Gang.[3]

Trentham Hall, 1880

Stafford married three times. He married firstly Elizabeth Fazakerley, daughter of Nicholas Fazakerley, in 1744. Elizabeth died of smallpox two years later. They had no children.

Stafford married secondly Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter of the Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, in 1748. She died in 1761. They were parents to four children:

• Lady Louisa Leveson-Gower (22 Oct 1749-29 July 1827). She married Sir Archibald MacDonald, 1st Baronet.
• Lady Margaret Caroline Leveson-Gower (02 Nov 1753-27 January 1824). She married Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle and was the mother of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle.
• George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland (9 January 1758 – 19 July 1833).
• Lady Anne Leveson-Gower (22 Feb 1761-16 November 1832). She married the Right Reverend the Hon. Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, Archbishop of York.

Stafford married thirdly Lady Susanna Stewart, daughter of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway, 23 May 1768. They were parents to four children:

• Lady Georgiana Augusta Leveson-Gower (13 Apr 1769 – 24 March 1806). She married William Eliot, 2nd Earl of St Germans.
• Lady Charlotte Sophia Leveson-Gower (11 Feb 1771; christened 12 Feb 1771 St Martin in the Fields, Westminster – 12 August 1854). She married Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort and was mother of Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort and Lord Granville Somerset.
• Lady Susanna Leveson-Gower (born Sep 1772; christened 15 Sep 1772 Trentham – 26 May 1838). She married Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby.
• Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville (born 12 October 1773, christened 5 Nov 1773 Trentham – 8 January 1846).

When Lord Stafford died at the age of 82, he was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son George from his second marriage who was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. The Marchioness of Stafford died in August 1805.[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Barker, George Fisher Russell (1893). "Leveson-Gower, Granville (1721-1803)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages