Lathom House.

Lathom belonged at the time of the Domesday Survey to Orm, a Saxon, from whom the parish of Ormskirk—Orrn’s Church—derived its name.

His descendants took the name of Lathom from the place, and held it till the eventual heiress, Isabella de Lathom, married Sir John Stanley, in whose family it remained for several hundred years. In the end, the daughter and coheiress of the ninth Earl of Derby, Henrietta, Lady Ashbumham, sold it to Henry Furness, Esq., from whom it was purchased, in 1724, by Sir Thomas Bootle, of Melling, Chancellor to the Prince of Wales, as stated below, by whom the present magnificent house was re-built. It stands in the centre of a noble park between three and four miles in circumference.

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Sir Richard de Wilbdrgham, Lord of Wymincham, was High Sheriff of Cheshire in the 43rd. of Henry III. His second wife was Letitia, second daughter and co- heiress of Sir William Venables, of Wymincham. He died in the 2nd. of Edward I. His son,

William de Wilburgham, Lord of Radnor, also married twice, his first wife being Christiana, sister and coheiress of Richard Crosby. The eldest son,

William de Wilburgham, died in the 26th. of Edward the Third, and was succeeded by his son.

Ralph de Wilbukgham, of Radnor, who married to his first wife Felicia, daughter of John de Hulme, and had a son, his successor,

Thomas de Wilburgham, of Radnor, aged twenty-two or upwards at the time of his father’s decease in L388. He married Margery, daughter of Thomas de Leighes, and dying in the 11th. of Henry IV., was succeeded by his son,

Thomas de Wilburgham, of Radnor, who married Margaret, daughter and heiress of John Golborne, Lord of Woodhey. By this lady he had six sons, of whom the second was

Randulph Wilbraham, Esq., who married Alice — ? and dying, March 2nd., 1548, was succeeded by his eldest son,

Ralph Wilbraham, Esq., living in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, who married Elizabeth, daughter of — Sandford, of the county of Lancaster. The second of his three sons,

Richard Wilbraham, Esq., of Nantwich, boru in 1528, was married, first, to Elizn, daughter of Thomas Maisterson, Esq., of that place, and secondly, to Margaret, widow of Alexander Elerch, Esq. He died in 1612. His eldest son,

Richard Wilbraham, Esq., Barrister at Law, and Common Sergeant of the City of London, married, in 1584, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Puleston, Lord Mayor of London, and dying in the lifetime of his father, his son succeeded,

Thomas Wilbraham, Esq., of Nantwich, who married, in 1619, Rachel, daughter and sole heiress of Joshua Clive, Esq., of Huxley, and had, with other issue, his successor at his decease,

Roger Wilbraham, Esq., of Nantwich, born in 1623. He was one of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak. He married Alice, daughter of Roger Wilbraham, Esq., of Dorfold, by whom, who died of grief for the loss of her two eldest sons, he had among other children surviving,

Randle Wilbraham, Esq., of Nantwich, who served the office of High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1714. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Brooke, Bart., of Norton. Their second son,

Randle Wilbraham, Esq., LL.D., of Rode Hall, Deputy High Steward of the University of Oxford, and M.P., married Dorothy, only daughter of Andrew Kenrick, Esq., of Chester, and was succeeded by his only surviving son,

Richard Wilbraham, Esq., of Rode Hall, M.P. for Chester, who married Mary, daughter and sole heiress of Robert Bootle, Esq., of Lathom House, and assumed that additional sirname, under the will of his wife’s uncle, Sir Thomas Bootle, Knight, Chancellor to H.R.H. Frederick Prince of Wales. Of this marriage, the eldest son,

Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, Esq., of Lathom House, M.P., born March 7th., 1771, was created Baron Skelmersdale January 30th., 1828. He married, April 19th., 1796, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Edward Taylor, of Bifrons, Kent, and by her, who died June 2nd., 1840, left, with other children,—he died April 3rd., 1853,—an eldest son,

The Honourable Richard Bootle-Wilbraham, Esq., M.P., born October 27th., 1801, married, May 22nd., 1832, Jessy, third daughter of Sir Richard Brooke, Bart., of Norton, and died May 5th., 1844, leaving, with other issue,

Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, second Lord Skelmersdale, of Skelmersdale, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, P.C., and a Lord in Waiting on Queen Victoria, married Alice, second daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, and had, with other issue,

The Honourable Edward George Bootle-Wilbraham, born October 26th., 1864.