Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester

Cecil Weld-Forester, 1st Baron Forester was a Tory British Member of Parliament and later peer.

Early life

Born Cecil Forester and baptised at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, he was the eldest son of Anne Forester and Lt-Col. Cecil Forester, MP for Wenlock. 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, the Rev. Townshend Forester, and Maj. Francis Forester.
His paternal grandparents were William Forester, also MP for Wenlock, and the former Catherine Brooke. His maternal grandfather was Robert Townshend.
He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.

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.
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. In 1813 he served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury.

Personal life

In 1800, Weld-Forester married Lady Katherine Mary Manners, daughter of Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, and Lady Mary Isabella Somerset. They had 11 children, six sons and five daughters:

John George Weld-Forester, 2nd Baron Forester, who married Alexandrine, Viscountess Melbourne, a daughter of Joachim Carl Ludwig, Count von Maltzan, and widow of Frederick Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne.
Hon. Anne Elizabeth Weld-Forester, who married George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield, in 1830.
Hon. Elizabeth Katherine Weld-Forester, who married Robert Carrington, 2nd Baron Carrington, in 1822.
Hon. Isabella Elizabeth Annabella Weld-Forester, who married Maj.-Gen. Hon. George Anson, son of Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson and Lady Anne Margaret Coke, in 1830.
George Cecil Weld-Forester, 3rd Baron Forester, who married Hon. Mary Anne Jervis, a daughter of Edward Jervis, 2nd Viscount St Vincent, and widow of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, in 1862.
Hon. Henrietta Maria Weld-Forester, who married Albert Denison, 1st Baron Londesborough, son of Gen. Henry Conyngham, 1st Marquess Conyngham, in 1833.
Hon. Charles Robert Weld-Forester, who married Lady Maria Jocelyn, daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden and Hon. Maria Stapleton, in 1848.
Orlando Watkin Weld Weld-Forester, 4th Baron Forester, a Reverend who married Sophia Elizabeth Norman, daughter of Richard Norman, in 1840. After her death in 1872 he married Emma Maria Tollemache, daughter of William Tollemache, in 1875.
Col. Hon. Emilius John Weld-Forester, 13th Light Infantry; died unmarried
Hon. Selina Louisa Weld-Forester, who married Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford in 1844.
Lt.-Col. Hon. Henry Townshend Weld-Forester, Grenadier Guards, died unmarried

He died of gout at Belgrave Square, London in 1828, aged 61, and was buried at Willey parish church. His tomb was sculpted by John Carline. 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, Hon. Selina Louisa Weld-Forester, 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.