ANSON, Thomas (1767-1818), of Shugborough Hall, Staffs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

5 Dec. 1789 - 17 Feb. 1806

Family and Education

b. 14 Feb. 1767, 1st s. of George Anson of Shugborough by Mary, da. of George Venables Vernon. educ. Eton 1779; Oriel, Oxf. 1784. m. 15 Sept. 1794, Anne Margaret, da. of Thomas William Coke, 6s. 4da. suc. fa. 1789; cr. Visct. Anson 17 Feb. 1806.

Offices Held

Biography

The death of Anson’s father in 1789 opened a vacancy at Lichfield, then controlled jointly by the Leveson Gower and Anson families. Pitt wrote to Lord Stafford in the hope that there might be an opportunity to revive Rose’s scheme of 1784 of an opposition to the Ansons and to secure the return of a friend of Government, but Stafford had already agreed to support Anson’s return ‘at this election’:

Independent of the feelings I had to a family, with which I have lived in friendship and connection for near half a century [he wrote to Pitt on 2 Nov.1] I think I did the best for the King and for his Administration ... all circumstances considered. The young Mr. Anson is, I believe, a man of good character and good dispositions, he is at present, I hope, not linked with any party, he succeeds to an unencumbered landed estate of £16,000 per annum. Is it worth while to risk at the present moment the compelling this young man to connect himself with the enemies of the present Administration, when there is a probability of throwing that property into the other scale?

Anson was at Vienna when his father died and was elected during his absence. He returned shortly before the general election of 1790, but disappointed Stafford by adopting his father’s political attitude. He became one of Fox’s closest friends, and owed his peerage to Fox.

He died 31 July 1818.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: E. A. Smith

Notes

  • 1. Chatham mss.