Description:During the eighteenth century the Gower-Anson interest made extensive purchases of property in Lichfield in order to secure the voting rights which were attached to certain properties. Tenants who were given occupancy of these properties would be expected to vote for the Gower-Anson interest in any local elections.
Earl Gower's agent Thomas Cobb was responsible for overseeing this scheme, and many other aspects of the Gower-Anson party's election campaigns. Cobb kept accounts of expenditure on elections, including a catalogue of the involvement of lawyers in the Gower-Anson campaigns. His accounts tell us about the important role of legal authorities in local elections at this time. A few extracts from Cobb’s accounts appear below:
Rioting & Violence
Thomas Cobb lists the involvement of lawyers in a charge against a man named Mr. Knightley who had been charged ‘for almost strangling Mr. Hartwell with ropes’ at the Lichfield election in 1748.
The Property Purchasing Scheme
Lawyers were also involved in the Gower-Anson property purchasing scheme. In April 1753 John Simpson was owed money for his involvement in the scheme ‘making several Purchases & preparing several Conveyances to our Friends, & Transfers of several Titles’.
Identifying Voters
Cobb’s account of the involvement of lawyers in the Lichfield local elections refers to lawyers ‘examining’ copies of the ‘Parish Rates’ to see if voters supporting the Gower-Anson party had been ‘inserted’ into the Parish Rates book. This would mean that they were not eligible to vote in elections.
A man named Mr. Simpson was also paid for ‘preparing and sending circular Letters to all the Outvoters,’ for ‘preparing lists of all the Voters’ and for ‘Twice canvassing the Town,’. Other lawyers were involved in administrative work relating to property and voting rights, including ‘Production of Burgage Books, & Rentals’ and ‘the Inrollment of Freemen'.
Thomas Cobb and his son were involved themselves in the voting process. Cobb’s accounts describe their ‘trouble’, stating that ‘as soon as the Election was over' they were involved 'in digesting the Poll, & examining particularly into the Qualification of each Voter’. Mr. Simpson and another man named Charlie Simpson were also employed ‘for drawing their observations on the several Rights of Voters in Lichfield, in order to establish Mr. Vernons & disqualify Sir Thomas Gresleys Votes’
Not Just the Lawyers: Payments to Clerks
Cobb states that money was owed to ‘several Clerks’ who had transcribed documents belonging to the Corporation identified by Mr. Simpson, ‘being a most tedious & invidious Task’.