Baron Dulverton, of

Batsford Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearby, ...

in the

County of Gloucester Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Glouce ...

, 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 in 1929 for the businessman Sir Gilbert Wills, 2nd Baronet. He was President of the

Imperial Tobacco Company Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mo ...

and also 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

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

and

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

. The Wills Baronetcy, of Manor Heath in the Parish of Bournemouth in the

County of Southampton Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire is ...

, was created in 1897 for his father Frederick Wills. He was a director of W. D. & H. O. Wills, which later merged into the Imperial Tobacco Company, and also represented Bristol North in Parliament as a

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

. A member of the wealthy

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

tobacco importing Wills family, he was the younger brother of

Sir Edward Payson Wills, 1st Baronet ''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 ...

, a half brother of

Sir Frank William Wills Sir Frank William Wills (17 August 1852 – 26 March 1932) of Berkeley Square, Bristol, England, was a member of the Wills tobacco family, who became a noted British architect and went on to serve as Lord Mayor of Bristol. Early life and care ...

Kt., and the cousin of

William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke William Henry Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke (1 September 1830 – 29 January 1911), known as Sir William Wills, Bt., between 1893 and 1906, was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician. Seat - Combe Lodge, Blagdon, Somerset. ...

. In 1966 the Wills family contained the largest number of millionaires in the British Isles, with 14 members leaving fortunes in excess of one million pounds since 1910, totalling £55 million.Guinness Book of Records, London, 1966, p. 230 the titles are held by the first Baron's grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his father in 1992. The family seat is

Batsford Park Batsford Arboretum is a arboretum and botanical garden near Batsford in Gloucestershire, England, about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. It is owned and run by the Batsford Foundation, a registered charity, and is open to the public ...

, near

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Wills baronets, of Manor Heath (1897)

Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet (22 November 1838 – 18 February 1909) was a businessman, philanthropist and politician in the United Kingdom. He was a director of W. D. & H. O. Wills, a famous tobacco company headquartered in Bristol which ...

(1838–1909) * Sir Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills, 2nd Baronet (1880–1956) (created Baron Dulverton in 1929)

Barons Dulverton (1929)

* Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills, 1st Baron Dulverton (1880–1956) *(Frederick) Anthony Hamilton Wills, 2nd Baron Dulverton (1915–1992) * (Gilbert) Michael Hamilton Wills, 3rd Baron Dulverton (b. 1944) 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 only son Hon. Robert Anthony Hamilton Wills (b. 1983) who is working for Capital Collective Limited in the UK.

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dulverton Baronies in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Noble titles created in 1929 Noble titles created for UK MPs

Wills baronets, of Manor Heath (1897)

Barons Dulverton (1929)

See also

References