Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 1st Baronet, of Isell

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 1st Baronet, of Isel (c. 1610–1688) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679.

Lawson was born in 1610, the son of William Lawson, and his wife Judith Bewley, daughter of William Bewley of Hesket. His great uncle was Sir Wilfred Lawson who acquired the family estate of Isel in Elizabethan times and served as MP for Cumberland. Lawson matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford on 21 November 1628, aged 17. He was knighted by Charles I on 28 February 1641.

Although knighted by Charles I in 1641, and appointed to the position of ship money sheriff and a nominee to the commission of array, Lawson became active on parliaments behalf at the start of the English Civil War. He set up a garrison on St Herbert’s Island, Derwent Water, then part of his estate, and became commander-in-chief for Cumberland in 1644. He held local office throughout the Interregnum, and sat for the county in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. But his loyalty to the Rump was suspect, and he was imprisoned. In 1643, he attempted to seize Carlisle Castle for the Parliament; however, the local gentry and the militia routed the parliamentarians and pursued them to Abbey Holme, only to release then on the understanding that they would discontinue their belligerence. In 1652, he assisted a group of Cromwell’s supporter’s when they laid waste to Rydal Hall. His acts of aggression also included the persecution of the Quaker community. He became High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1635, 1645-47, 1652-57.

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