Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Forester
Office:Member of Parliament for Wenlock
Term Start:1801
Term End:1820
Predecessor:Parliament of Great Britain
Alongside:John Simpson
Successor:Francis Forester
William Lacon Childe
Term Start1:1790
Term End1:1800
Predecessor1:Sir Henry Bridgeman
George Forester
Alongside1:Sir Henry Bridgeman, John Simpson
Successor1: Parliament of the United Kingdom
Birth Name:Cecil Forester
Death Place:Belgrave Square, London
Education:Westminster School
Alma Mater:Christ Church, Oxford
Children:9

Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester (baptised 7 April 1767 – 23 May 1828) was a Tory British Member of Parliament and later peer.

Early life

Born Cecil Forester and baptised at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury,[1] he was the eldest son of Anne (Townshend) Forester and Lt-Col. Cecil Forester, MP for Wenlock.[2] He assumed the additional surname of Weld by Royal Licence in 1811, upon inheriting Willey Park from his cousin George Forester. Among his younger siblings were George Townshend-Forester (Recorder of Wenlock), the Rev. Townshend Forester (Prebendary of Worcester), and Maj. Francis Forester (MP for Wenlock who married Lady Louisa Vane, a daughter of the 1st Duke of Cleveland).[3]

His paternal grandparents were William Forester, also MP for Wenlock (and son of Sir William Forester and Lady Mary Cecil, a daughter of the 3rd Earl of Salisbury), and the former Catherine Brooke.[4] His maternal grandfather was Robert Townshend.

He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.[5]

Career

He was elected to the House of Commons for Wenlock in 1790, a seat he held until 1820. The latter year he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Forester, of Willey Park in the County of Shropshire. He had initially asked to be titled as Baron Wenlock to spite the rival local Lawley family who later did take the title.[5]

During the time of the French Revolutionary Wars, Forester was in 1800 captain of the Wenlock volunteers troops, becoming ultimately lieutenant-colonel in command in 1804.[5] In 1813 he served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury.[6]

Personal life

In 1800, Weld-Forester married Lady Katherine Mary Manners (1779–1829), daughter of Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, and Lady Mary Isabella Somerset.[7] They had nine children, four sons and five daughters, including:[8]

He died of gout at Belgrave Square, London in 1828, aged 61, and was buried at Willey parish church.[11] His tomb was sculpted by John Carline.[12] He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son John George Weld-Forester. Lady Forester died in 1829. His daughters Anne and Selina were leaders of fashionable society, and both were intimate friends of Benjamin Disraeli. It was often said that Disraeli in his last years was in love with Selina, but since she was not free to marry, he proposed to the widowed Lady Anne instead, in the hope of remaining close to both sisters.

Descendants

Through his youngest daughter Selina, he was a grandfather of Lady Florence Bridgeman, wife of Henry Lascelles, 5th Earl of Harewood, and mother to his great-grandson, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, through whom Lord Forester's descendants would be in the British line of succession to the throne through his descendant Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood.[13]

Notes and References

  1. Book: The Complete Peerage, Volume V. 1926. St Catherine's Press. 552. Editors Vicary Gibbs and H. A. Doubleday. Parish named "St Chad's, Salop" (sic), birthdate and place not given.
  2. Web site: Namier . Sir Lewis . FORESTER, Cecil (?1721-74), of Rossall, nr. Shrewsbury, Salop . www.historyofparliamentonline.org . . 29 April 2024.
  3. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, volume 1, page 192.
  4. Web site: Namier . Sir Lewis . FORESTER, William (1690-1758), of Dothill Park, Salop . www.historyofparliamentonline.org . . 29 April 2024.
  5. Web site: Thorne . R. G. . FORESTER (afterwards WELD FORESTER), Cecil (1767-1828), of Ross Hall and Willey Park, Salop. . www.historyofparliamentonline.org . . 29 April 2024.
  6. Book: Keeling-Roberts, Margaret. In Retrospect: A Short History of the Royal Salop Infirmary. 1981. North Shropshire Printing Company. xi. 0-9507849-0-7.
  7. Web site: Catherine Mary Forester (née Manners), Lady Forester . www.npg.org.uk . . 29 April 2024 . en.
  8. G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 276.
  9. Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970, p. 1036.
  10. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 3, page 3450.
  11. Book: The Complete Peerage, Volume V. 1926. 553.
  12. Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by rupert Gunnis
  13. Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990