Description:A number of letters were found amongst the papers of Sir John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694-1754) relating to the family’s estates and associates in Staffordshire and Shropshire written during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
A particularly notable letter amongst these was written by John Hough, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry to Reverend Mr. Harding of Newcastle-under-Lyme on 3rd March 1715.
The Bishop refers to ‘the disturbances at Newcastle since his Majestys accession to the Throne’ which he describes as ‘very notorious’. The riots were related to the accession of George I to the English Throne in August 1714. Hanoverian George was extremely unpopular in England. Not only was he perceived to have a weak claim to the throne, he spoke little English and had a reputation for living in debauched luxury with mistresses. In 1715 George came up against Jacobite rebels who aimed to restore the Catholic King James Stuart to the throne.
Outraged by the notorious rioting in Newcastle, Bishop John Hough reprimands Reverence Harding writing ‘I should have been glad to have heard that you had done your part towards the quieting of them’. He adds ‘your being so well with ye Inhabitants…amounts to a Demonstration that you could have put them into a better disposition’.
The Bishop writes that he considers himself bound to ‘promote’ King George’s ‘service’ to the ‘utmost’ of his ‘power’. As a Protestant, Bishop John Hough would have been profoundly opposed to Jacobite sympathizers who wanted to restore Catholic James to the English throne. He remarks that his ‘Religion, the Libertys of England, & all that is Dear to us, must stand & fall with Him’.
Unfortunately for Reverend Harding, his failure to prevent the Newcastle riots from escalating had cost him his curacy in Newcastle. The Bishop notes that he suspects ‘another’ person would be found ‘to supply ye Cure at Newcastle who will shew more affection to his Majestys interest than you have done’.
This intriguing document demonstrates the impact of national political developments on Newcastle during the early eighteenth century.