Author: Warburton, Rowland Eyles Egerton
Biography:
WARBURTON, Rowland Eyles Egerton, formerly EGERTON (1804-91: ODNB)
He was baptised on 14 Sept. 1804 at Moston in Cheshire and christened at Backford on 19 Feb. 1805, the eldest child of the Rev. Rowland Egerton and his wife Emma Croxton, who—through her mother Emma Warburton—was the heiress of Sir Peter Warburton, fifth baronet. After he died in 1813, the Egertons by royal licence took on the surname Warburton. The younger Rowland succeeded to the baronetcy and to extensive estates at Arley and Warburton. He was educated at Eton and matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1823, but did not proceed to a degree. After his Grand Tour, he settled for life at Arley Hall and devoted himself to fox-hunting and other outdoor pastimes, with poetry as an occasional leisure activity. On 7 May 1831 he married Mary Brooke (1811-81) of Norton Priory, daughter of a baronet, by special licence and “with the consent of friends,” at Halton Chapel in Runcorn, Cheshire; they had one son and two daughters. Warburton served the county as JP and was High Sheriff in 1833. As a writer he was and is still known for cheerful hunting songs and occasional celebrations of local events. The 1834 Hunting Songs was regularly reprinted; he also wrote verses about archery, for example in The Hawkstone Bow-Meeting (8 pages, 1835) and Rhymes on the Rules of the Cheshire Bowmen (1840). By the time he retired from fox-hunting in 1873, his sight was failing and by 1875 he was completely blind. He died at Arley Hall on 6 Dec. 1891 and was buried in the family vault at St. Mary and All Saints church at Great Budworth on 11 Dec., the body carried on a bier and preceded by over 100 tenants. The obituaries describe him as an ideal country squire, “a daring rider to hounds and a popular landlord” (Daily News). He left an estate valued at over £50,000. (ODNB 17 Apr. 2024; findmypast.com 17 Apr. 2024; Alumni Oxonienses; Daily News [London] 9 Dec. 1891; Morning Post 11 Dec. 1891) HJ
Other Names:
- R. E. E. W.
- Rowland E. Egerton Warburton