Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Baron Skelmersdale

Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Baron Skelmersdale, was born on 7 March 1771 and died on 3 April 1853. He was a British landowner and politician during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

He was the son of Richard Wilbraham-Bootle and Mary Bootle, the daughter of Robert Bootle. In 1796, upon the death of his father, Bootle-Wilbraham inherited Lathom House. In 1814, he legally changed his surname to Bootle-Wilbraham by royal licence.

Bootle-Wilbraham entered the British Parliament in 1795, representing Westbury for a year until 1796. Subsequently, he served as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1796 to 1812, for Clitheroe from 1812 to 1818, and for Dover from 1818 to 1828.

On 30 January 1828, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Skelmersdale, of Skelmersdale in the County Palatine of Lancaster. As a peer, he sat in the House of Lords.

In 1796, he married Mary Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Reverend Edward Taylor. She passed away in 1840. Lord Skelmersdale remained alive until 1853, passing away at the age of 82.

The couple had several children, notably including Richard Bootle-Wilbraham (1801–1844), Edward Bootle-Wilbraham (1807–1882), and Emma Caroline Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby. They also had a daughter, the Hon. Mary Charlotte, born in 1800. His eldest son Richard predeceased him, and the barony was succeeded by his grandson, Edward.

References for this information include Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition), the History of Parliament Online, and Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages. External resources include a portrait of Lord Skelmersdale and records of his contributions in Parliament documented in Hansard.