Captain William Anderton
(1825-1884)
8 August 1861

Volume 4, page 333, sitting number 5402.

[Identified in the Silvy daybooks as 'Mr Anderton,' the previous entry is Lady Emma Anderton, presumably his wife. This is therefore almost certainly William Michael Ince Anderton, JP and DL, of Euxton Hall, Lancashire.]

Born on 29 September 1825, he was a scion of an ancient Roman Catholic family. He married his first wife in 1850; she was Lady Emma Frances Mary, second daughter of Arthur James Plunkett, 9th Earl of Fingall. She died on 14 October 1866, aged only 40. William Anderton married, secondly, Casilda née Hunloke, daughter of Sir Harry Hunloke, Bart., and granddaughter and heiress of Lady Ann Scarisbrick. By his first marriage Captain Anderton had two sons and two daughters, and by his second, one son and one daughter.

He died on 24 January 1884 at Euxton Hall near Chorley in Lancashire, leaving an estate valued at £16,058. According to a lengthy obituary in the Wigan Observer: 'The deceased was the only son of Mr William Ince Anderton, of Euxton and Ince, and succeeded to the estates in 1848, his father being killed by an accident in the hunting field. He was born on 29 September, 1825, and was twice married. [...] His eldest son is Mr William Arthur Alphonsus Joseph Anderton, who was born on the 22nd December, 1855. The deceased gentleman was a justice of the peace and deputy-lieutenant for the county, and was Lord of the Manors of Euxton and Ince. He was for many years in the 17th Lancers, and afterwards was appointed a captain in the Lancashire Hussars, in which regiment he took an active interest.' The obituary continues at some length, giving details of Anderton's ancestors, before quoting another obituary that had previously appeared in the Chorley Guardian. 'On the death of his father he entered into the possession of the family estates, and he was always esteemed by the tenantry as a generous and considerate landlord, ever willing to foster the agricultural progress of the district, and his genial presence and ready word of kindly advice will assuredly be much missed by the farmers on his estate. He was exceedingly charitable to the poor, and doubtless his memory will be kept green in the hearts of many who were recipients of his bounty. [However, he later] lived much abroad, having built a splendid mansion near Cannes, in the South of France, only occasionally visiting his Lancashire home. For a period of about four years he resided abroad altogether. [...] In religion, Mr Anderton was a Roman Catholic, and contiguous to the mansion is an elegant Gothic domestic chapel, which was erected in 1866.'

[From an album compiled by Margaret Randalina Barnewall, Lady Trimleston.]