John Levett

John Levett (1721 - 1799) of Wychnor Hall (or Park), Staffordshire, was an English landowner and investor, and a Tory member of Parliament for Lichfield, Staffordshire for one term only (1761-1762). [ [http://www.the-staffordshire-encyclopaedia.co.uk/view.php?id=201 The Staffordshire Encyclopedia] ] He was not returned to Parliament, and questions were raised about his election.

Levett was unseated after a petition by his opponent Hugo Meynell, who replaced him as MP. [ [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42347 Victoria County History, Lichfield, Parliamentary Representation, British History Online] ] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=GmUNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA500&lpg=PA500&dq=%22hugo+meynell%22+levett&source=web&ots=fTCoDWxOnc&sig=5efvQ5c9RGu25gqatxuGtUx5XW0&hl=en The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland, Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield, 1816] ] John Levett lived at Wychnor Hall since 1765, when he purchased the estate while living in Lichfield. Levett was a sometime member of the Lunar Society, and an early investor in the industrial projects of Birmingham inventor Matthew Boulton. In his will, John Levett assigned part of the revenues he derived from his SoHo Manufactory investments to the Prebendary of Curborough, Staffordshire, to which the Levett family had ancestral connections. [ [http://www.vialibri.net/item_pg/1608913.htm City of Lichfield, Collection of 12 Documents, 1764-1803, from the Office of Thomas Hinckley, solicitor, via Libri] ] [ [http://www.farahardupre.co.uk/search_detail.php?id=20206 John Levett will, photo] ]

Other members of the Levett family lived in Staffordshire, all having common roots in Sussex, and they included Lichfield attorney and town clerk Theophilus Levett (1693-1746), the father of John Levett of Wychnor by his wife Mary Babington, daughter of Zachary Babington. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42359 Townships, Curborough and Elmshurst, Victoria County History, A History of the County of Stafford, British History Online] ] MP John Levett is buried in Whittington, Staffordshire, where his Babington ancestors had resided, and where the Levett family continued to hold land. [ [http://www.the-staffordshire-encyclopaedia.co.uk/view.php?id=89 Church Memorials, The Staffordshire Encyclopedia, Stafforshire History Online] ] [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51401 Levett, Whittington (St. Giles), A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1848, British History Online] ]

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