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Granville Leveson-gower, 1St Marquess Of StaffordGranville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, 2nd Earl Gower (4 August 1721 - 26 October 1803) was a British politician. Gower's father, John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, was a prominent Tory politician who became the first major Tory to enter government since the Hanoverian succession, joining the Carteret administration of 1742. Gower himself was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1744, the younger Gower was elected to parliament. With the death of his elder brother in 1746, he became known by the courtesy title of Viscount Trentham until he succeeded his father as Earl Gower in 1754. Gower was associated with the faction of the Duke of Bedford, who was his brother-in-law, and as a member of that faction was given many governmental positions. Following Bedford's death in 1771, Gower became leader of the group, and as Lord President in Lord North's administration was a key supporter of a hard-line policy towards the American colonists. Gower was frustrated by what he saw as the North administration's inept handling of the war, and he resigned from the cabinet in 1779. When North resigned in March 1782, Gower was approached to form a ministry, but he refused, and he refused subsequent overtures from both Shelburne and the Fox-North coalition to enter the government. Instead, he became a key figure in bringing about the fall of the Fox-North coalition, and was rewarded with the position of Lord President once again in the new administration of William Pitt the Younger. Although he soon exchanged this office for that of Lord Privy Seal, and gradually began to withdraw from public affairs, he remained a cabinet minister until his retirement in 1794. In 1786 he had been created Marquess of Stafford in 1786 as a reward for his services. Stafford married three times. He married first in 1744 Elizabeth Fazakerley, who died of smallpox two years later. In 1748 he married again to Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter of the Duke of Bridgewater (and Bedford's niece). By her he had his eldest son and heir, George, later created Duke of Sutherland. Following Louisa's death in 1761, he married a third time in 1768 to Lady Susannah Stewart. By her he also had a son, Granville, who was later created Earl Granville. Stafford died at Trentham Hall in 1803.
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