The Westmorland Gazette was founded in Kendal in 1818 by a group of Tories in support of the two sitting Conservative Members of Parliament for Westmorland, Viscount Lowther, later Earl of Lonsdale and his brother Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lowther. It was established in opposition to the Whig Westmorland Advertiser and Kendal Chronicle (founded in 1811) which promoted civil, religious commercial and political freedom.

The Gazette circulated throughout the Lake District and the poet William Wordsworth was one of its original backers, retaining a long relationship with the paper. Other notable contributors were Beatrix Potter and writer, art critic, and social philanthropist John Ruskin.