Sir John Wrottesley, 8th Baronet

Background and early life

Wrottesley was the eldest son of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley, 7th Baronet, Dean of Worcester, and Mary, the daughter of John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower. He had five sisters, including Elizabeth Wrottesley. His maternal grandfather was head of the most powerful Whig political dynasty in Staffordshire, based at Trentham Hall: the Leveson-Gowers controlled a number of seats in the unreformed House of Commons. In 1754, Gower died and was succeeded by Wrottesley's uncle, Granville Leveson-Gower.

Wrottesley determined on an army career, being commissioned as ensign of the 2nd Foot Guards during 1761 and transferring as captain of the 85th Foot the next year. From 1766 to 1767, he was equerry to the Duke of York.

Wrottesley's political associations were strengthened when his uncle, Gower, joined the Cabinet as Lord President of the Council in 1767, and again two years later when his sister married the Prime Minister, the Duke of Grafton. However, Gower and Grafton belonged to different, often competing, factions of the shifting coalition that constituted the Whig party.

Political career

Wrottesley was nominated for Parliament for the general election of 22 March 1768 by Earl Gower as member for Newcastle-under-Lyme. The borough was regarded as belonging to the Gower Leveson family, who owned much of the property and allowed the tenants to get into serious arrears, as well as providing lavish hospitality during elections. However, the borough had a large electorate and had recently been made less secure by the emergence of a malcontent group of electors, who invited Robert Clive to challenge the controlling interest. The challenge was unsuccessful and Wrottesley was returned unopposed, alongside Alexander Forrester, a major member of the Bedfordite faction of conservative Whigs, placed in the seat at the request of the Duke John Russell himself. The Gowers were now allied with the Duke of Bedford's faction and this was to determine most of Wrottesley's parliamentary career.

Only a month after the election, a vacancy occurred in Staffordshire, when one member, George Harry Grey, succeeded his father as Earl of Stamford. Grey had been a Gower nominee in this county constituency, where, by informal agreement, the Gowers nominated one member, while leaving the other seat for one of the local landed gentry. Wrottesley resigned as Member a couple of months later and was assigned to the vacancy by Gower, becoming MP for Staffordshire on 5 July 1768. He represented the county for the remainder of his life, always being returned unopposed.

At first Wrottesley almost invariably voted with the government. Such consistency could be achieved only by a political transformation, as the administration itself changed in 1770. For his first two years in Parliament, Wrottesley, the Gowers and the rest of the Bedfordites were involved with the Whig administration of Wrottesley's own brother-in-law, Grafton, a friend and supporter of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The Chathamites favoured an aggressive, anti-French colonial policy, and Wrottesley had made his military career in pursuit of their objectives. Regarding the tensions in North America, however, the Chathamites tended to sympathise with the colonists. The Bedfordite Whigs increasingly adopted the opposite opinion. During the Tory administration of Frederick North, Lord North, from 1770 onwards, the Bedfordites were allied with the Tories. Wrottesley and the rest of the Gower clients thus changed sides, supporting a hard line against the Americans that led to the American Revolutionary War. Gower assumed control of the faction when Bedford died in 1771. Wrottesley was still a member of the Army and in 1770 had been promoted to lieutenant colonel. When hostilities began in 1775, he rejoined his regiment, retaining his membership in Parliament.

Family

Sir John succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death on 20 July 1769. He married the Hon. Frances Courtenay, daughter of The Viscount Courtenay, in 1770, and they had ten children, including his heir, John, who succeeded him as 9th Baronet and was later ennobled as Baron Wrottesley.