William Brereton, 1st Baron Brereton (1550 – 1 October 1631) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

at various times between 1597 and 1622. He was created a peer in the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

in 1624 as

Baron Brereton Baron Brereton, of Leighlin in the County of Carlow, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 11 May 1624 for Sir William Brereton, of Brereton, Cheshire. William Brereton was from an old and distinguished family in Cheshire, a ...

Biography

Brereton was the son of Sir William Brereton of

Brereton, Cheshire Brereton is a civil parish in the Cheshire East district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. At the 2011 census, the population was 1,190. Brereton is mentioned in the Domesday book as the Manor of Bretune. The civil parish includ ...

and was baptised on 6 February 1550. He was about nine when his father died in 1559 and he succeeded to the extensive family estates. He was educated at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and was awarded a BA in 1568. He was admitted at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

in 1569. From 1573, he was JP for Cheshire and was

High Sheriff of Cheshire This is a list of Sheriffs (and after 1 April 1974, High Sheriffs) of Cheshire. The High Sheriff, Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the The Crown, Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law officer, law enforcement officer in th ...

from 1581 to 1582. In 1586, he built a mansion at Brereton (

Brereton Hall Brereton Hall is an Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house north of Brereton Green, next to St Oswald's Church, Brereton, St Oswald's Church in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Brereton, Cheshire, Brereton, Cheshire, England. It ...

) which was similar to

Rocksavage Rocksavage or Rock Savage was an Elizabethan mansion in Cheshire, England, which served as the primary seat of the Savage family. The house lies in ruins, at in Clifton (now a district of Runcorn). Built in the 1560s for Sir John Savage, Rock ...

, the house of his father-in-law Sir John Savage. He was knighted in 1588. He was commissioner for musters in 1595 and in 1596. History of Parliament Online – WilliamBrereton
/ref> In 1597, Brereton was elected Member of Parliament for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. He was elected MP for Cheshire again in 1614 and in 1621. He had an estate near

Old Leighlin Old Leighlin (), also Oldleighlin, is a village, civil parish and townland in County Carlow, Ireland. The village is west of Leighlinbridge. The site was at one time one of the foremost monastic houses in Leinster, with 1,500 monks in residen ...

, from which he and his heirs were

absentee landlord In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 b ...

s. He was created Baron Brereton of Leighlin in the County of Carlow on 11 May 1624. William Brereton died at the age of about 80 and was buried at Brereton.

Family

William Brereton married Margaret Savage, daughter of Sir John Savage of Rocksavage, Cheshire, and Lady Elizabeth Manners (d. 1570), daughter of

Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 12th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, Order of the Garter, KG (c. 1497{{snd20 September 1543), of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire (adjacent to the small county of Rutland), was created Earl of Rutland by King Henry ...

. They had four sons and four daughters. Most of them died young, and two who survived to marry were: *Mary Brereton, who married on 18 July 1608,

Henry O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond Henry O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond PC (Ire) (1588–1639), styled Lord Ibrickane until 1624, was summoned to the House of Lords of the Irish Parliament of 1613–1615. Birth and origins Henry was born the eldest son of Donogh O'Brien and ...

* Sir John Brereton (born 25 March 1591), heir apparent, who married Anne Fitton, daughter of Sir Edward Fitton of

Gawsworth Old Hall Gawsworth Old Hall is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Gawsworth, Cheshire, England. It is a timber-framed house in the Cheshire black-and-white style. The present house was built between 1480 and 1600, replacing an earli ...

, and died in the lifetime of his father. With his wife Anne (who married secondly, Sir Gilbert Gerard), he had three sons and two daughters: ** William Brereton (1611–1664), successor of his grandfather as 2nd Baron Brereton. **John Brereton (1624 – 22 October 1656) **Edward Brereton **Mary Brereton, who married Sir Michael Hutchinson. **Jane Brereton (died 1648), the eventual heiress of the family, who married around 1646, Sir Robert Holte. Their son was

Sir Charles Holte, 3rd 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 "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brereton, William Brereton, 1st Baron 1550 births 1631 deaths English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1614 English MPs 1621–1622

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

Barons Brereton Peers of Ireland created by James I