CLAVERING, John (1698-1762), of Chopwell, co. Dur.

John Clavering, of an old Durham family,1Surtees, Durham, ii. 280. was returned as a Whig for Great Marlow, though a stranger to the town, with the support of Walpole and a ‘flying squadron’ managed by George Bruere, a former Member. The petition against him by Sir John Guise was unsuccessful. In Parliament he voted with the Administration but did not stand for re-election when appointed groom of the bedchamber in May 1731. He was, however, again returned in 1734 on Richard Edgcumbe’s interest at Penryn, where he was defeated by one vote only in 1741. His petition was abandoned in February 1742 after Walpole’s fall. He retained his court appointment until the accession of George III, when he ‘refused to sit up with the body [of George II] and was dismissed by the King’s order’.2Walpole to Montagu, 13 Nov. 1760. He died 23 May 1762, leaving his estates and name to his nephew William, 2nd Earl Cowper.