Peter Rylands (18 January 1820 – 8 February 1887) was an English wire manufacturer in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and a Liberal politician who was active in local government and sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in two periods between 1868 and 1887.

Life

Rylands was born at

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

, the son of John Rylands and his wife Martha Glazebrook, daughter of the Rev. James Glazebrook, vicar of Belton. He was educated at Boteler's Grammar School, Warrington.Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
/ref> He was a wire manufacturer and active in local government. As early as 1843 he was corresponding with Richard Cobden on political matters. He was Mayor of Warrington from 1853 to 1854. He had directorships of the Manchester and Liverpool Banking Co., of the Bridgewater Navigation Co., of Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Co., Limited, and of Rylands Brothers, Limited, iron masters and wire manufacturers. He was a J.P. for Cheshire and Lancashire. At the 1868 general election Rylands was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Contagious Diseases in 1872. He lost his Warrington seat at the 1874 general election, when he also stood unsuccessfully in the South-Eastern Division of Lancashire. In 1876 he won a parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

,Craig 1832–1885; p. 71 where he was re-elected in

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

and 1885. When the Liberals split over the First Home Rule Bill, Rylands joined the breakaway Liberal Unionists, and was returned to the

at the 1886 general election as a Liberal Unionist. He held the seat until his death on 8 February 1887 at the age of 67. Rylands lived at Massey Hall, Thelwall which he left to the local authority for educational purposes. Rylands married twice. He had three sons by his second wife Caroline Reynolds, whom he married in 1861. His eldest son, the author

L. Gordon Rylands Louis Gordon Rylands (10 July 1862 – 20 December 1942), best known as L. Gordon Rylands was a British criminologist and writer. Biography Rylands was born in Warrington, Lancashire. His father was the politician Peter Rylands. He was educate ...

, published an edition of his letters. A grandson was the academic Dadie Rylands.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rylands, Peter 1820 births 1887 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 People educated at Boteler Grammar School Politicians from Warrington Liberal Unionist Party MPs for English constituencies Politics of Burnley Mayors of Warrington