Anson, Thomas William, 1st Earl of Lichfield (1795 -1854)

Thomas William Anson was the eldest son of Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson, and his wife Anne Margaret, daughter of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church Oxford. On 1 June 1818 he was elected as M.P. for Great Yarmouth, but within a month had to resign as his father died, and Thomas William succeeded him as Viscount Anson. He served under Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne as Master of the Buckhounds between 1830 and 1834 and under Melbourne Postmaster General between 1835 and 1841. Lord Lichfield married Louisa Catherine, daughter of Nathaniel Philips, in 1819. They had four sons and four daughters. Known for his extravagant lifestyle and gambling, debts of £600,000 accumulated, leading to Anson's financial collapse in 1842. Lord Lichfield died in March 1854, aged 58, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son Thomas George Anson.