Theophilus Levett was an attorney and early town clerk of Lichfield, Staffordshire, a prominent Staffordshire politician and landowner, and a member of a thriving Lichfield social and intellectual circle which included his friends Samuel Johnson, the physician Erasmus Darwin, the writer Anna Seward and the actor David Garrick, among others.
12 Facts About Theophilus Levett
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Theophilus Levett was married to Mary Babington, the daughter of Zachary Babington, a lawyer, High Sheriff of Staffordshire.
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Theophilus Levett offered Johnson favourable terms and advanced him ready money in return for holding the mortgage, easing Johnson's financial bind.
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Theophilus Levett had St John's House opposite St John's hospital built for himself before 1732.
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Theophilus Levett was named for Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, whose wife the Countess of Huntingdon was Levett's godmother.
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Theophilus Levett served as Steward 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.
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In 1718 and 1721 Theophilus Levett narrowly escaped prosecution for sedition after declaring his Jacobite sympathies.
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The imbroglio began in 1718 when Theophilus Levett prevented the Town Clerk from saying 'amen' to the final 'God Save the King' when a brief was read in church.
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Theophilus Levett, according to testimony, had "clapt his Hand upon the Deponent's Mouth," and the Clerk "Blubbered" to the bemusement of the congregation.
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Subsequently, all Theophilus Levett's accusers retracted their statements, and he was elected to office as Town Clerk.
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Theophilus Levett's accusers claimed they had been manipulated into testifying against him by local Whigs.
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Shortly afterwards, a petition was sent to the King, signed by 185 Lichfield worthies, including Michael Johnson, the father of Samuel, a favour that Theophilus Levett later repaid when he arranged a tutor's job for Samuel Johnson at the home of Thomas Whitby in Great Haywood, near Lichfield, after Johnson's father's death.