Baron Forester, of Willey Park in the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, is a title in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Cecil Weld-Forester, who had previously represented Wenlock in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. Born Cecil Forester, he assumed the additional surname of Weld by royal licence in 1811. His son, the second Baron, also represented Wenlock from 1790 in Parliament, and later served in the Tory administration of

Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms The Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms is a post in the Government of the United Kingdom that has been held by the Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the ...

(Government

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

) from 1841 to 1846. He was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Baron. He sat as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Wenlock for 46 years, and was

Father of the House Father of the House is a title that has been traditionally bestowed, unofficially, on certain members of some legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the title refers to the longest continuously- ...

from 1873 to 1874. His nephew, the fifth baron, also represented Wenlock in Parliament as a

. Both his son, the sixth baron, and grandson, the seventh baron, served as mayor of Wenlock. , the title is held by the latter's grandson, the ninth baron, who succeeded his father in 2004. The family were anciently hereditary

foresters A forester is a person who practises forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Foresters manage forests to ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Hay in Mount Gilbert Forest, and lived at Wellington or at Watling Street Hall (later Old hall), where they had a half

virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...

of land held by keeping the Hay. John Forester (died c. 1521) leased Wellington Hay from perhaps 1512, and another John Forester bought its freehold in 1555. The family became gentry and several of the family became Members of Parliament for Wenlock.

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29 October 2004) was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the mother ...

, was a great-great-granddaughter of the 1st Baron Forester. The family seat since 1811 is Willey Hall, near

Willey, Shropshire Willey is a small village south west of the town of Broseley, Shropshire, England, within the civil parish of Barrow. It is made up of about 4 farms and the majority of land is owned and leased by the Weld-Forester family of Willey Hall. Willey ...

. The estate was inherited by

Brooke Forester Brooke Forester (7 February 1717 – 8 July 1774) was the long-serving Member of Parliament for the borough constituency of Wenlock from 1739 and 1768. He was the eldest son of William Forester of Dothill in Wellington, Shropshire (now Telfor ...

through his wife, Elizabeth Weld, and has remained in the Weld-Forester family for over two centuries.

Predecessors

*Francis Forester (b. 1623) was

High Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibili ...

in 1652. *

Sir William Forester ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

(1655–1718), his son, inherited Dothill from his half-brother, Richard Steventon (died 1659), in about 1675 and became a Member of Parliament in 1678. * William Forester (1690–1758), his son, served as MP for Wenlock (with substantial gaps) from 1715 until his death. *

(1717–1774), his eldest son was its member continuously from 1734 to 1761. He married the heiress of George Weld of Willey Park and inherited that estate. *

George Forester George Forester (21 December 1735 – 13 July 1811) was Member of Parliament for the borough constituency of Wenlock on several occasions between 1758 and 1785. He was the only son of Brooke Forester of Dothill in Wellington and Elizabeth dau ...

(1735–1811) sat for Wenlock (with gaps) from 1758 to 1790, when he was replaced by his cousin and heir, Cecil, later 1st Baron Forester. *Cecil Forester, the younger brother of Brooke Forester, held the same seat from 1761 to 1768, during a gap in George's representation of it, and he was the father of the 1st Lord Forester.

Baron Forester (1821)

Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester (baptised 7 April 1767 – 23 May 1828) was a Tory British Member of Parliament and later peer. Biography Born Cecil Forester and baptised at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, Editors Vicary Gibbs and H. A. ...

(1767–1828) * John George Weld Weld-Forester, 2nd Baron Forester (1801–1874) * George Cecil Weld Weld-Forester, 3rd Baron Forester (1807–1886) * Orlando Watkin Weld Weld-Forester, 4th Baron Forester (1813–1894) * Cecil Theodore Weld-Forester, 5th Baron Forester (1842–1917) *

George Cecil Beaumont Weld-Forester, 6th Baron Forester George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

(1867–1932), educated at Harrow and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

and served as a captain in the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cr ...

, later gaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the

Shropshire Yeomanry The Shropshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1795, which served as a cavalry and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and as a cavalry and an artillery regiment in the Second World War. It w ...

; Mayor of Wenlock between 1920 and 1922. Succeeded as the 6th Baron on 20 November 1917. *

Cecil George Wilfred Weld-Forester, 7th Baron Forester Cecil may refer to: People with the name * Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) * Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Canada *Cecil, Alberta, ...

(1899–1977), served during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a lieutenant in the

Guards Machine Gun Regiment The Guards Machine Gun Regiment was a regiment of the British Army, formed for service in the First World War. When the Guards Division was formed in August 1915, it included three machine gun companies, with a fourth added in March 1917. In Apr ...

, educated for some time at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

(apparently without taking a degree), and eventually became colonel in the Royal Horse Guards. Succeeded as the 7th Baron on 10 October 1932. *

George Cecil Brooke Weld-Forester, 8th Baron Forester George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

(1938–2004), educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Royal Agricultural College ;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts" , established = 2013 - University status – College , type = Public , president = King Charles , vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery , students ...

. Succeeded as the 8th Baron on 4 January 1977. *

Charles Richard George Weld-Forester, 9th Baron Forester Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

(born 1975) The

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

is the present holder's son, the Hon. Brook George Percival Weld-Forester (born 2014).Peerage News. http://peeragenews.blogspot.co.uk

Male-line family tree

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forester Baronies in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Noble titles created in 1821 Noble titles created for UK MPs