PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION
LICHFIELD was represented by two members
in the parliament of 1305, in most parliaments
between 1311 and 1327, and in that of 1353. (fn. 1) It
then ceased to be represented until some time
during the 1547–52 parliament when two members were again sent. (fn. 2) It was made a onemember constituency by the Instrument of
Government in 1653 but regained its second
member in 1659. (fn. 3) It became a one-member
constituency again in 1867. (fn. 4) In 1885 the city
was merged into the Lichfield parliamentary
division, which covered much of south-east
Staffordshire. (fn. 5) The constituency was reduced
to Lichfield and Tamworth in 1951. Lichfield
became part of the new Mid-Staffordshire constituency in 1983. (fn. 6)
The electorate numbered between 17 and 30
in the mid 16th century and over 300 in 1685. (fn. 7)
In 1701 the House of Commons resolved that
the electorate consisted of the corporation, burgage holders, 40s. freeholders, and freemen who
paid scot and lot (i.e. those who were enrolled as
members of one of the city's trade companies
and who were resident). (fn. 8) In 1761 there were
520 voters, of whom 21 were members of
the corporation, 216 burgage holders, 122
freeholders, and 161 freemen. Almost all the
freeholders and over half the burgage holders
lived outside the city; many had evidently been
provided with their voting qualification by the
Whig alliance of Earl Gower and the Anson
family. (fn. 9) In 1799 the electorate numbered 556
and the non-residents remained numerous; of
the burgage holders 46 were resident and 164
non-resident, of the freeholders 121 and 91
respectively, of the freemen 77 and 1, and of the
annuitants (voters who held rents charged on
burgage property) 1 and 35. The other electors
were the members of the corporation (then
numbering 16), 2 cathedral vicars choral, a
cathedral canon, and the vicar of St. Mary's. (fn. 10)
The electorate was increased to 861 by the 1832
Reform Act and to 1,320 by the 1867 Reform
Act. In 1885 the electorate of the Lichfield
parliamentary division was 8,842. (fn. 11)
Little is known of the members returned in
the 14th century. William of Lichfield, who
attended the 1313 parliament, is probably identifiable as William the taverner, the representative in 1320 and town bailiff in 1308–9, (fn. 12) and
Stephen le Blount, in the 1326–7 parliament,
was probably the Stephen Blund who was the
bishop's steward in the early 1320s. (fn. 13) The two
members elected to the 1547–52 parliament
were both dependants of Sir William Paget
(later Lord Paget) of Beaudesert in Longdon,
who controlled the representation until his
death in 1563; the only burgess known to have
been elected during that period, in 1553 and
1554, was Mark Wyrley, one of the bailiffs
named in the city's 1548 charter of incorporation. (fn. 14) Most other members in the 16th and
earlier 17th century owed their promotion to
connexions at court or with local peers; several
were lawyers, such as members of the Weston
and Dyott families. (fn. 15)
The two members in the Short Parliament of
1640 were Richard Dyott of Freeford, a royalist,
and Sir Walter Devereux, the natural son of the
earl of Essex (d. 1601) and a parliamentarian.
Devereux was chosen for the Long Parliament
later in 1640, with the puritan town clerk,
Michael Noble, as his colleague. Devereux died
in 1641 and was succeeded by a royalist, Sir
Richard Cave, who was chosen apparently at the
wish of Prince Rupert. Cave was removed by
resolution of the House of Commons in 1642
and replaced by Michael Biddulph of Elmhurst,
a supporter of parliament. (fn. 16) From 1654 to 1660
Lichfield was represented by a Presbyterian
mercer, Thomas Minors. He was joined in the
parliament elected in 1659 by Daniel Watson of
Burton upon Trent. In 1660 Watson was elected
with Michael Biddulph's son, also Michael, but
was unseated later the same year on petition and
replaced by Minors. (fn. 17)
At the 1661 election the Lord Treasurer,
Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton and
recorder of Lichfield from 1664, promoted his
kinsman, Sir Henry Vernon, Bt., of Hodnet
(Salop.). (fn. 18) The members chosen, however, were
Colonel John Lane of Bentley, a royalist, and
Michael Biddulph's brother Sir Theophilus
Biddulph, then of Greenwich (Kent). (fn. 19) Lane
died in 1667 and was succeeded by Richard
Dyott, who had the support of the Presbyterians
in the city; it was on that account that Bishop
Hacket described Dyott as 'true to the king but
not to the Church' and tried to prevent his
election. (fn. 20) In 1675 the corporation agreed to a
request from Thomas Thynne, later Viscount
Weymouth, to work for the election of his
cousin Daniel Finch, a prominent Tory and son
of the Lord Chancellor. (fn. 21) At a byelection in
1678 following Richard Dyott's death, however,
Sir Henry Lyttelton, Bt., a court candidate, was
elected. The corporation invited Lyttleton to
stand again at the general election in February
1679, when he was elected with Sir Theophilus
Biddulph's son Michael (later Sir Michael).
Finch, however, was returned at an election in
August 1679, having been advised by Thynne to
canvass in person because of the strong prejudice against the court. To ensure his election
Thynne had 'fixed the sheriff'. (fn. 22) Finch's colleague Sir Michael Biddulph refused to stand at
the 1685 election and the corporation promoted
the candidature of Elias Ashmole. He withdrew
under royal pressure to make way for Richard
Leveson, a court supporter favoured by Lord
Dartmouth. (fn. 23) It was alleged at the time that
Dartmouth, who had married a Lichfield heiress, aimed at controlling the city. (fn. 24)
The Dartmouth interest collapsed at the Revolution, and in 1689 Sir Michael Biddulph stood
again and was returned with Robert Burdett, a
Tory. (fn. 25) Burdett was returned in 1690 with a
fellow Tory, Richard Dyott of Freeford; in 1695
his colleague was Sir Michael Biddulph. The
victors in 1698 were Dyott and Biddulph, who
stood together in January 1701 when Biddulph
was defeated by William Walmesley, a Whig. In
November 1701 Dyott and Biddulph were
returned unopposed, as they were again in 1702.
Dyott and a fellow Tory, Sir Henry Gough,
were returned in 1705, and a Tory, John Cotes,
and Sir Michael Biddulph in 1708. (fn. 26) The corporation showed its Tory sympathies when it
greeted Henry Sacheverell in 1710, and at an
election later that year the Tories Dyott and
Cotes defeated Biddulph and Walmesley. (fn. 27) At
the election for the first Hanoverian parliament
in 1715 Dyott and Cotes were defeated by a
Whig, Walter Chetwynd of Grendon (Warws.),
and a moderate Tory, Samuel Hill of Shenstone.
At a byelection in 1718 Chetwynd was displaced
by a Tory, William Sneyd of Bishton in
Colwich; it was then alleged that Whig supporters were 'barbarously beaten and abused and
their lives endangered by a very great mob with
papers in their hats resembling white roses', the
Pretender's emblem. After a petition Sneyd was
unseated in favour of Chetwynd. (fn. 28) Whigs continued to be elected until 1734, when two Tories, Sir Rowland Hill and George Vernon, were
returned unopposed. Vernon was nominated by
John, Baron Gower, of Trentham, who then
dominated the political scene in Staffordshire,
and he was again returned in 1741 together with
a fellow Tory, Sir Lister Holte, Bt. (fn. 29)
In 1744 Gower deserted the Tories and allied
himself in government with the Whigs. His
new allies in Staffordshire were Admiral Lord
Anson and Thomas Anson of Shugborough, and
together they determined to take control of
Lichfield from the corporation and the neighbouring gentry. (fn. 30) In preparation for the election
of 1747 they purchased at least 13 burgages and
gave bribes, spending an estimated £20,000 to
secure the election of Gower's son Richard
Leveson-Gower and of Thomas Anson, and
causing Lady Anson, Thomas's sister-in-law,
to characterize Lichfield as 'the borough of
Guzzledown'. Party politics even spread to the
racecourse at Whittington where rival Whig and
Tory meetings were held between 1748 and
1753. (fn. 31) Richard Leveson-Gower died in 1753,
and at a byelection in November that year the
Gower candidate Henry Vernon was defeated by
a local Tory, Sir Thomas Gresley, Bt., of Drakelow (Derb.). The corporation was active on
Gresley's behalf and allegedly interfered with
the poll. Over 100 men, most of them
'foreigners', were admitted to the butchers'
company the night before the election and
claimed the right to vote as freemen; (fn. 32) other
freemen were improperly allowed to vote; and
additional burgage voters had been created by
the drawing up of a new rental. Moreover, as
access to corporation records was refused, it was
difficult for the Gower candidate to challenge
intending voters. Gresley had also made a show
of strength by entering the city at the head of a
band of 200 gentlemen and 500 freemen wearing
blue and white ribbons. Gresley died in
December 1753, and his election was in any
event disallowed by the House of Commons in
January 1754. At the general election later that
year the Gower-Anson candidates, Thomas Anson and Granville Leveson-Gower, triumphed,
principally because of their grip on the burgage
and freehold vote.
Accounts kept for the 1747–54 elections by
the Whig agent, Thomas Cobb, showed that 72
votes had been acquired since 1747 at a cost of
£7,894 9s. 4d. spent on buying property. The
property was also regarded as a financial investment, in contrast with the large sums of money
that had formerly been paid out to alehouse
keepers. Expenditure on drink, however, was
still necessary. In preparation for a byelection in
1755 it was decided to centralize the entertainment of voters at Cobb's house, the Friary, to
which each alehouse keeper would be asked to
send a hogshead of ale: 'we think a hogshead
from every house will be as much as can be
drank by all our friends that are voters from this
time to the end of the election if the tap is kept
open every day.' In 1761 fourteen publicans
were still demanding the payment of bills, then
totalling £389 16s.
Despite its control of the electorate the
Gower-Anson interest was again challenged in
1761 when the election of a local Tory, John
Levett of Wychnor in Tatenhill, son of a former
town clerk, was proclaimed after a scrutiny.
Levett was unseated after a petition by his Whig
opponent Hugo Meynell, who replaced him as
M.P. (fn. 33) Whigs were thereafter returned unopposed until 1799 and included from 1768 to
1795 Thomas Gilbert, poor-law reformer and
land agent to the Gowers. (fn. 34)
The corporation remained firmly Tory, much
to the annoyance of Anna Seward, a Whig, who
complained that she lived among 'a set of violent
Tories who believe that the Royal and the Great
can do no wrong'. (fn. 35) The corporation put up its
own candidate, Sir Nigel Gresley, Bt., at a
byelection in 1799, but he was defeated by Sir
John Wrottesley, Bt., who stood in the Gower
interest and was able to draw on the votes of
non-resident annuitants. (fn. 36) It may have been a
consequence of the corporation's frustration
that in 1801 it arranged for the admission of 386
freemen. The new freemen were known as
'guinea pigs' because each paid as his admission
fee to a trade company a guinea provided by the
corporation; the companies did not benefit
financially because the guineas were returned to
the corporation. (fn. 37) In the event the Whig candidates at the 1802 election, Thomas Anson and
Sir John Wrottesley, were returned unopposed.
There were no contests at later elections until
1826, when Sir Roger Gresley, Bt., stood unsuccessfully as a Tory. (fn. 38) In 1825 Thomas, Viscount
Anson (later earl of Lichfield), had taken over
the Gower interest in Lichfield and bought up
all the vote-carrying property of George Granville Leveson-Gower, marquess of Stafford. Anson retained George Vernon, the sitting M.P., as
the partner for Sir George Anson until 1831,
when an independent Whig, Sir Edward Scott,
Bt., took his place. (fn. 39) Whig, and later Liberal,
M.P.s continued to be returned until 1865,
when Richard Dyott of Freeford, a Conservative, was elected. In 1868, after Lichfield had
become a one-member constituency, Dyott defeated the Liberal candidate, and Conservatives
held the seat for as long as the city retained its
own M.P. (fn. 40) Reform rendered the Anson
property in Lichfield useless for electoral purposes, and the earl of Lichfield started selling off
his burgages in 1882. More burgages were offered for sale by his son in 1894 and 1902. (fn. 41)
Liberals represented the Lichfield parliamentary division from 1885 to 1923, when
Frank Hodges, general secretary of the miners'
federation, won the seat for the Labour party.
Hodges was defeated by a Conservative in 1924,
and from 1929 the constituency was represented
by a National Labour supporter, J. A. LovatFraser. After his death in 1938 the National
Labour candidate was defeated by the official
Labour candidate, C. C. Poole, who was reelected in 1945. (fn. 42) Another Labour candidate,
Julian Snow, was elected in 1950 and represented the constituency until his retirement in
1970. A Conservative, J. A. d'AvigdorGoldsmid, was then elected, retaining the seat in
February 1974 but losing it to a Labour candidate, B. J. Grocott, in the October election that
year. It was regained for the Conservatives in
1979 by John Heddle, who at the elections
of 1983 and 1987 held the Mid-Staffordshire
constituency. (fn. 43)