John Robinson wrote to Charles Jenkinson that Lawson would no doubt be chosen for Cumberland should Lowther vacate that seat.
The new writ was issued on 9 December, and on the 14th Lawson, in a circular letter, announced his intention to stand.
He was returned unopposed on the 28th, and in his speech to the electors declared that he would be the better able to discharge the trust imposed on him ‘as he did not look upon himself as particularly obliged to any particular party’.
At the election dinner, he drank the health to the nobility and gentry who were absent but had declared for Lawson.
The circumstances are described Hutchinson (Vol 2) as follows: Sir Wilfrid died on 1 December 1762 at Barnby Moor, Nottinghamshire, on his way to attend Parliament.