in the resident freemen
Number of voters: about 600
| Date | Candidate | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Apr. 1754 | JOHN WALDEGRAVE | |
| BAPTIST LEVESON GOWER | ||
| 26 Mar. 1761 | JOHN WALDEGRAVE | |
| HENRY VERNON | ||
| 27 Dec. 1762 | SIR LAWRENCE DUNDAS vice Vernon, appointed to office | |
| 22 Nov. 1763 | THOMAS GILBERT vice Waldegrave, called to the Upper House | |
| 22 Mar. 1768 | JOHN WROTTESLEY | |
| ALEXANDER FORRESTER | ||
| 28 Nov. 1768 | GEORGE HAY vice Wrottesley, vacated his seat | |
| 20 Jan. 1774 | HAY re-elected after appointment to office | |
| 11 Oct. 1774 | GEORGE WALDEGRAVE, Visct. Chewton | 293 |
| SIR GEORGE HAY | 270 |
|
| Clement Kinnersley | 193 |
|
| 26 Jan. 1779 | GEORGE GRANVILLE LEVESON GOWER, Visct. Trentham, vice Hay, deceased. | |
| 12 Sept. 1780 | GEORGE GRANVILLE LEVESON GOWER, Visct. Trentham | |
| ARCHIBALD MACDONALD | ||
| 2 Apr. 1784 | ARCHIBALD MACDONALD | |
| RICHARD VERNON | ||
| 4 July 1788 | MACDONALD re-elected after appointment to office |
Newcastle-under-Lyme was always classed as a Leveson Gower borough, and only once during this period was that interest seriously challenged. Yet it had a fairly large electorate, and could not have been easy to manage. In 1767 Lord Clive received a letter from three freemen offering the support of 120 more ’to serve any gentleman... willing to offer himself a candidate in opposition ot the present interest’.1Signed by Rich. Rhodes, Geo. Taylor, and Wm. Hill, 20 Nov. 1767, Clive mss. Lord Gower is said to have controlled the borough ’in part by lavish hospitality... and in part by an ingenious device of owning the property in the town and letting the tenants get ten or fifteen years in arrears’.2J.C. Wedgwood, Staffs. Parlty. Hist. ii. xxvii.