Towards the end of the seventeenth century Sir Creswell Levinz, a distinguished lawyer and judge, bought estates in Nottinghamshire, one of which carried with it an interest at Retford. His eldest son, William, became one of the leaders of the Nottinghamshire Tories; was returned for Retford in 1702 and again in 1705, when he was unseated on petition; and sat for the county during the last two Parliaments of Anne.
On George I’s accession Levinz learned that the agents of Lord Pelham, who had just been confirmed in possession of the Holles estates in Nottinghamshire, were boasting ‘of the great sums they had at their disposal and of how they would bear all before them’.
In 1722 Levinz lost his seat after a close contest, of which he wrote:
It has been my fortune to see a good deal of election affairs in my time, but I never yet saw anything come near this, where the methods of menaces and promises have been so extravagant and the corruption so open and avowed.
Turberville, loc. cit.
In 1727 he threatened to join Sir Robert Clifton in contesting both Retford and the county, with influential Whig support; but in the end, though ‘the whole body of Tories importuned him most earnestly to stand’, he concluded an agreement with the local Whig leaders not to stand himself for the county on condition that they would not oppose his nominee at Retford.