James Williamson, 1st Baron Ashton

Williamson was born the third of four surviving children to Alderman James Williamson and Eleanor (née Miller) of Parkfield, Lancashire. His father, who was mayor of Lancaster, had established a successful coated fabrics business in the town in the 1840s. James was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and worked all his life in the family business. ==Contributions to Lancaster==

, which Lord Ashton built after the death of his second wife. The Williamson family was extremely wealthy and dedicated to charity. With his father, Williamson created the city's Williamson Park, on the site of former stone quarries on Lancaster moor, and built other gardens throughout the city. After the death of his second wife, Jessie, who supported him in his political life, he built the Ashton Memorial on a hill in the park in 1909. The Memorial, an Edwardian baroque building, is now used for exhibitions and for weddings. It remains the world's second-largest memorial erected by a husband, to commemorate his late wife, after the Taj Mahal. He also donated the city's Town Hall and a monument to Queen Victoria in the city's Dalton Square. Williamson bought Ashton Hall in 1884, serving as High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1885. Williamson was noted in particular for his generosity to children. After he became High Sheriff in 1885, he served a breakfast for 10,000 people of the local population. Williamson's philanthropy in Lancaster over the years, through many gifts, subscriptions, and buildings, amounted to more than £500,000 (). ==Political career and peerage==

In the 1886 general election, Williamson was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster, and held his seat at the 1892 election. Williamson was a strong supporter of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, the Liberal Party leader, and Gladstone likewise held Williamson in high regard for his business instincts. Williamson was a supporter of Gladstone's Government of Ireland Bill 1893, and gave generously to Irish causes. Gladstone planned to recommend Williamson for a peerage but resigned in 1894, without any outgoing honours. The next year, though, Williamson was elevated to the peerage as Baron Ashton, of Ashton in the County Palatine of Lancaster, during the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours of Lord Rosebery. He was also Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire and was elected as president of the Lancashire County Cricket Club in 1927. In later years, he became a virtual social recluse, although still running his business interests. He divided his time between Ashton Park and Ryelands House, his other home in Lancaster. Ryelands became packed with stacks of newspapers and magazines that reportedly reached the ceiling. When in London, he refused to stay at his townhouse, Alford House, instead staying at a hotel. He would not go to social events or pay social calls, and refused to see anyone who had not made an appointment to see him. He even refused to meet a journalist from South America who had travelled to interview him but had mistakenly not arranged the appointment in advance. ==Marriage and issue==

He married three times, firstly to Margaret Gatey in 1869, with whom he had two daughters: Lord Ashton died at Ashton Hall in 1930, aged 88. ==Arms==