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of Lord Gower," Levett wrote, "I beg to call a meeting for 9 October to consider whether it will be more for his
Majesty's service and the ease of the county, to call out the militia or to raise some companies of foot and a troop or two of horse, by virtue of commissions to be granted by Lord Gower, with a declaration that they shall be disbanded as soon as the present troubles are over."
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gentleman had promised to marry her if she swore falsely against the aspiring politico. Shortly afterwards, a petition was sent to the King, signed by 185 Lichfield worthies, including
Michael Johnson, the father of Samuel, a favour that Levett later repaid when he arranged a tutor's job for Samuel Johnson at the home of Thomas Whitby in
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that failed. Levett offered
Johnson favourable terms and advanced him ready money in return for holding the mortgage, easing Johnson's financial bind. Theophilus Levett and Johnson were frequent correspondents, and they remained lifelong friends, despite Levett's occasional inquiries about overdue payments.
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Because of his position, Levett became a major powerbroker in
Lichfield. In a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth and the Deputy Lieutenants from 1745, Levett gives a snapshot of the influence he wielded, and showed there was little doubt about where he stood on the question of the Monarchy. "By command
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Subsequently, all Levett's accusers retracted their statements, and he was elected to office as Town Clerk. Levett's accusers claimed they had been manipulated into testifying against him by local Whigs. One accuser, a "poor servant girl" named Alice Hayes, even claimed that one prominent local Whig
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The imbroglio began in 1718 when Levett prevented the Town Clerk from saying 'amen' to the final 'God Save the King' when a brief was read in church. Levett, according to testimony, had "clapt his Hand upon the
Deponent's Mouth," and the Clerk "Blubbered" to the bemusement of the congregation. Three
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for £80 on 31 January 1739, when
Johnson was 31 years old, a debt that Theophilus Levett's son John continued to carry after his father's death. Hardpressed for cash, Johnson and his mother had only one substantial asset after the death of his father, who had invested in a parchment-making operation
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The reason for Levett's sympathies for the
Scottish cause are unclear, although Lichfield was a hotbed of Jacobite sentiment at the time. Clearly, there was an element of Whig party politics involved, but the story of Levett's actions, for which he was not ultimately prosecuted, seems to have some
201:. Garrick, wrote Seward, "was the lover of her early youth. When he quitted Lichfield to become a theatrical adventurer, he had her promise to be his the instant his situation became profitable." The romance was not to be: Anna Levett ultimately married her cousin Rev. Richard Levett of
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served as
Steward (town clerk) of Lichfield from 1721 to 1746, during which time he was a prominent player in the town's political affairs, occasionally narrowly averting political disaster. In 1718 and 1721 Levett narrowly escaped prosecution for sedition after declaring his
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years passed before Levett again stirred up controversy. A candidate for coroner and Town Clerk, Levett was accused of wearing white roses on 10 June, as well as drinking toasts to the
Pretender "with other Gentlemen who were reconned the Jacobites of the Town."
388:, Derbyshire, who was convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots. Babington was hung, drawn and quartered on Tower Hill in 1586 for his role in the plot.
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Theophilus Levett had St. John's House (later
Yeomanry House) opposite St. John's hospital built for himself before 1732. Levett's new home "replaced a house known in 1577 as Culstubbe Hall, the home of the physician Sir
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basis in fact. Levett's sympathies for the Scots cause may trace back to the family's close involvement with the Earls of Huntingdon, who were sympathetic to the Scots cause and distrustful of
541:
The Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, William Walter Legge, Great Britain Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Eyre & Spotiswoode, London, 1896
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Samuel Johnson home on Lichfield's Market Street. Theophilus Levett loaned his 31-year-old friend Johnson £80 secured by a mortgage on the home where Johnson's mother lived
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The descendants of Theophilus Levett and his wife Mary Babington went on to become prominent in Lichfield and Staffordshire for more than two centuries, serving as
125:, Staffordshire, a prominent Staffordshire politician and landowner, and a member of a thriving Lichfield social and intellectual circle which included his friends
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A History of the County of Stafford, Volume 14, Victoria County History of Staffordshire, M.W. Greenslade (ed.), British History Online, british-history.ac.uk
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Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Isabel of Essex Volume, Marquis of Ruvigny, Raineval Staff, republished by the Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994
504:. On the other hand, Levett's sympathy for the Stuart cause may suggest an underlying strain of populism in the otherwise straitlaced Levett clan.
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Portrait of Miss Levett, The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, Anna Seward, Walter Scott, Vol. I, James Ballantyne & Co., London, 1810
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in the late 17th century," according to the Victoria County History of Staffordshire. The Levett home was demolished in 1925.
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for two centuries and as local barristers. Dr. Zachary Babington, great-grandfather of barrister Zachary, was precentor of
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and elsewhere. Several streets in today's Lichfield are named for the early town clerk and his family. The family is of
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A History of the County of Stafford, Volume 14, M. W. Greenslade, 1990, British History Online, british-history.ac.uk
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Samuel Johnson: Literature, Religion and English Cultural Politics, J.C.D. Clark, Cambridge University Press, 1994
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sympathies. After Levett retracted his statements, the matter was dropped but not without a storm of controversy.
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An early friend of Samuel Johnson's before the author went off to Oxford, Levett later assumed the mortgage on
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Letters, Vol. I, David Garrick, David Mason Little, Morrow Kahrl, Harvard University Press, 1963
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Samuel Johnson in Historical Context:, J. C. D. Clark, Howard Erskine Hill, Macmillan, 2001
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and elsewhere in Staffordshire. The Babington family had been prominent in the
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449:, Cheshire, 3 December 1722. Arthur Levett was the son of William Levett of
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Zachary Babington, Whittington & District History Society, wdhs.org.uk
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Theophilus Levett was married to Mary Babington, the daughter of
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Theophilus Levett was also descended from the Aston family of
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The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World
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The Staffordshire Babingtons were distantly related to Sir
568:, M. W. Greenslade, (text also at British History Online)
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at Birmingham, as well as rectors of the local church at
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Samuel Johnson, Walter Jackson Bale, Basic Books, 1998
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Theophilus Levett's daughter Anne was, according to
121:(1693–1746) was an attorney and early town clerk of
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441:Theophilus Levett was the son of Arthur Levett of
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294:to Theophilus and Mary Levett, St Giles Church,
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398:The Gentleman's Magazine, F. Jefferies, 1869
250:Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon
587:. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
566:Victoria County History of Staffordshire
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618:People from Lichfield
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607:Categories
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70:Town clerk
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262:Levett
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