Description:Found within the personal papers of Sir John Leveson-Gower, first Earl Gower (1694-1754), this letter dated 20th April 1723 is signed by William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton.
The Fitzherbert family, Lords of the Manor of Swynnerton, were powerful local landowners whose family seat, Swynnerton Hall, remains one of Swynnerton’s local landmarks.
In April 1723 William wrote to Sir John complaining that a number of gentlemen standing in Staffordshire had been left out of the list of Land Tax Commissioners. Sir John Leveson-Gower owned extensive lands in Staffordshire and played an important role in local politics. Sir William wrote to inform Sir John ‘that some Gentlemen, of pritty good Estate in Staffordshire’ and ‘well wishers’ to Sir John and his political ‘interest’ had been ‘left out’ of the ‘list of Commisioners’.
Fitzherbert tells Gower that the excluded gentlemen had approached him with their concerns. The gentlemen believed that Sir John and his Brother had a powerful influence on the election of commissioners in Staffordshire. Fitzherbert informs Earl Gower that he had reassured the men that the Leveson-Gowers were not involved in their exclusion from the list. He writes ‘I have told some of the Gentlemen I was very confident neither your Lordshippe or Mr Leveson had any hand in the alteration, and that there must have been some secret management by some persons in that matter’.
Encouraged by ‘the many obligations’ he had to Earl Gower as well as his ‘inclination’ to Earl Gower’s ‘service’, Fitzherbert wrote to Sir John enquiring whether he or his brother knew ‘how itt was’ that the men had failed to be elected as land tax commissioners, so he could ‘with the most assureance give these Gentlemen satisfaction’.
At the conclusion of his letter, William Fitzherbert expresses his sorrow at the death of Sir John’s Mother, Lady Katherine Leveson-Gower, who died in 1722. He writes of his ‘reall concerne for the great losse of my Good Lady Gower’. Fitzherbert writes that he would ‘allways retayn a gratefull remembrance’ of her.
This letter reflects the social connections and profitable associations made amongst landowners in Staffordshire in the early eighteenth century. Fitzherbert’s letter serves to reassure Earl Gower of his personal support and political allegiance, reflecting a concern that other likeminded men be elected to positions of authority in the County.