Stephen Williamson was a founder of the Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 shipping company Balfour Williamson & Co. and a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician.

He was born in Cellardyke

Cellardyke

Cellardyke is a village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The village is to the immediate east of Anstruther and is to the south of Kilrenny.- History :...

, Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

 in 1827, the son of Archibald Williamson, a shipowner. In 1848 he went to Liverpool, and there founded, with Alexander Balfour

Alexander Balfour

Alexander Balfour was a Scottish merchant and founder of the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson.Balfour was born in Leven, Fife, the son of Henry Balfour, a foundry owner...

, the firm of Balfour Williamson, trading with South America with offices in Valparaiso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and San Francisco. He married Anne Guthrie, the daughter of Dr Thomas Guthrie

Thomas Guthrie

Thomas Guthrie D.D. was a Scottish divine and philanthropist, born at Brechin in Angus . He was one of the most popular preachers of his day in Scotland, and was associated with many forms of philanthropy - especially temperance and Ragged Schools, of which he was a founder.He studied at Edinburgh...

.

In 1880 he was elected to the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for St Andrews

St Andrews Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

St Andrews Burghs was a district of burghs constituency, representing various burghs of Fife, Scotland, in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1832 to 1918.-Area covered:...

, a seat he held until 1885, and then represented Kilmarnock Burghs

Kilmarnock Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

Kilmarnock Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system....

 between 1886 and 1895.

Williamson had homes in Copley

Copley, Greater Manchester

Copley is an area of the town of Stalybridge, which lies at the foot of the Pennines, 8 miles east of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. The area has a local secondary school which is attached to a local recreational centre and swimming pool....

 in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

 and Glenogil in Forfarshire. He died at Copley in June 1903. His son Archibald Williamson

Archibald Williamson, 1st Baron Forres

Archibald Williamson, 1st Baron Forres PC , known as Sir Archibald Williamson, 1st Baronet, from 1909 to 1922, was a Scottish businessman and politician....

 was also a politician and was created Baron Forres

Baron Forres

Baron Forres, of Glenogil in the County of Forfar, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the Scottish businessman and Liberal politician Sir Archibald Williamson, 1st Baronet. He had already been created a Baronet in 1909. Williamson was the son of Stephen...

 in 1922.

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