John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower PC (10 August 1694 – 25 December 1754), was an English Tory politician and peer who twice served as Lord Privy Seal from 1742 to 1743 and 1744 to 1754. Leveson-Gower is best known for his political career in the British Parliament, where he sat in the House of Lords as a leading member of the Tory Party before defecting to serve in various Whig-dominated government ministries until his death. Born in London, England into a prominent aristocratic family, Leveson-Gower was educated at Westminster School and the University of Oxford. After his father died in 1709, Leveson-Gower assumed his peerage as the Baron Gower and took his seat in the House of Lords. As part of his political career, he embarked on an effort to bring several parliamentary constituencies in Staffordshire and Westminster under his control during the 1720's. In 1742, Leveson-Gower started serving in the Carteret ministry as Lord Privy Seal. Though he resigned the next year, in 1744 Leveson-Gower again served in the same position as part of the Whig-led Broad Bottom ministry. He soon became a devoted supporter of Henry Pelham and his brother the Duke of Newcastle. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, he remained loyal to the Hanoverians, which led George II to grant him the title of Earl Gower. During the 1747 British general election, seven parliamentary constituencies which were under Leveson-Gower's control were contested by rival Tory candidates. Despite spending large sums of money from his vast financial estate, he only managed to retain two constituencies, Stafford and Lichfield. Leveson-Gower subsequently refused calls to resign twice in 1751 and 1754, before dying in office on 25 December 1754 at his London townhouse. Early life John Leveson-Gower was born on 10 August 1694 in London, England into the aristocratic Leveson-Gower family. His father was John Leveson-Gower, a politician who sat in the House of Commons until he was elevated to the English peerage in 1703 as the Baron Gower; he also served as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Leveson-Gower's mother was Lady Catherine Manners, the eldest daughter of the 1st Duke of Rutland. Leveson-Gower was educated at Westminster School before graduating from Christ Church, Oxford after entering the college in 1710. During his youth, though he was a Jacobite sympathiser, Leveson-Gower remained uninvolved in politics, being more interested in fox hunting and horse racing. However, beginning in