The company was a major industrial employer in the area and remained controlled by a junior branch of the Leveson-Gower family for almost all of its life. The enterprise began when the Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower, formed a partnership with Thomas and John Gilbert to exploit the coal, ironstone, and limestone on his Lilleshall estate. This was “Earl Gower and Company” and it became “The Marquess of Stafford and Company” in 1786 when Leveson-Gower was a granted his new title.
In 1802 the Marquess reorganised the business, buying out some of the partners and bringing in others. He set up his second son with the majority share in the company. As the company owned the land of its mines and works, and the reorganisation removed pockets of the Estate from the senior branch of the family. This arrangement addressed one of the problems faced by landowners: how to take care of younger sons when the inherited estate (the patrimony) was to be passed down largely intact to their eldest son.
The younger son, also Granville Leveson-Gower, had a significant diplomatic career and was ambassador to France and to Russia multiple times between 1804 and 1841. He was created Viscount Granville and then Earl Granville, establishing himself at Stone Park in Stafford. All subsequent chairmen of The Lilleshall Company until the 1980s were his descendants.