Baron Skelmersdale

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Baron Skelmersdale, of Skelmersdale in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[1] It was created in 1828 for the former Member of Parliament for Westbury, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Clitheroe and Dover, Edward Bootle-Wilbraham. His grandson, the second Baron (the son of the Hon. Richard Bootle-Wilbraham), was a Conservative politician and served in the Conservative administrations of Disraeli and Lord Salisbury. In 1880 he was created Earl of Lathom, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[2] However, the earldom became extinct on the death of his grandson, the third Earl, in 1930. The barony passed to the last Earl's second cousin once removed, the fifth Baron, who was the grandson of a younger son of the first Baron. On his death, the title was inherited by his cousin, the sixth Baron.

His son, the seventh Baron, served in junior ministerial positions in the Conservative administrations of Margaret Thatcher and was as one of the ninety-two elected hereditary peers allowed to remain after the passing of the House of Lords Act of 1999. As of 2018^[update], the title is held by his son, the eighth Baron, who succeeded him in that year.