George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer

George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer (August 1622 – 8 August 1684), known as Sir George Booth, 2nd Baronet, from 1652 to 1661, was an English peer.

He was son of William Booth, the son and heir apparent to Sir George Booth, 1st Baronet, of the ancient family settled at Dunham Massey in Cheshire, by his wife Vere Egerton, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Egerton. He took an active part in the English Civil War alongside his grandfather, Sir George Booth, 1st Baronet, on the Parliamentarians' side. He was returned to the Long Parliament for Cheshire in 1645, as well as to Oliver Cromwell's Parliaments of 1654 and 1656. In 1655 he was appointed military commissioner for Cheshire and treasurer at war. He was one of the excluded members who tried and failed to regain their seats after the fall of Richard Cromwell in 1659.

He had for some time been regarded by the Royalists as a wellwisher to their cause, and was described to the king in May 1659 as "very considerable in his county, a Presbyterian in opinion, yet so moral a man. . . I think your Majesty may safely on him and his promises which are considerable and hearty". He thus became one of the chief leaders of the new Royalists who united with the Cavaliers to effect the Restoration. A rising was arranged for the 5th of August in several districts, and Booth took charge of operations in Cheshire, Lancashire and North Wales. After gaining control of Chester on the 19th, he issued a proclamation declaring that arms had been taken up in vindication of the freedom of Parliament, of the known laws, liberty and property, and then marched towards York. The plot, however, was known to John Thurloe. Having been foiled in other parts of the country, Lambert's advancing forces defeated Booth's men at Nantwich Bridge. Booth himself escaped disguised as a woman, but was discovered at Newport Pagnell on the 23rd whilst having a shave, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

However, he was soon liberated and returned to his seat in the Parliament of 1659–1660, as one of the twelve members deputed to carry the message of the Commons to Charles II at The Hague. In July 1660 he received a grant of ??, having refused the larger sum of 20,000 at first offered to him, and on April 20, 1661, on the occasion of the coronation, he was created Baron Delamer, with a licence to nominate six new knights. The same year he was appointed Custos Rotulorum of Cheshire.

In later years he showed himself staunchly opposed to the reactionary policies of the government. He died on 8 August 1684, and was buried at Bowdon.

He married (I) Lady Catherine Clinton, daughter and co-heir of Theophilus, 4th Earl of Lincoln, by whom he had one daughter; and (2) Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, by whom, besides five daughters, he had seven sons, the second of whom, Henry, succeeded him in the Booth titles and estates and who was later created Earl of Warrington. Although this earldom became extinct on the death of the 2nd Earl in 1758, the Booth Barony of Delamer carried on another generation, only becoming extinct upon the 4th Baron's death in 1770. The Booths' even older title of Baronet then devolved upon a distant cousin, the Rev George Booth, Rector of Ashton, although the family's representation in the House of Lords had ceased; the Delamer title was later recreated in 1821 for the Cholmondeley family, kinsmen of the Marquesses of Cholmondeley and the Cholmeley Baronets.

References

*1911