Earl of Sefton

Born on 14 October 1835 at Sefton in Lancashire, William Philip Molyneux, 4th Earl of Sefton, was the son of Charles William Molyneux, 3rd Earl of Sefton, and Mary Augusta Gregg-Hopwood. At the death of his father in 1855 he gained the title 4th Earl of Sefton.

On 18 July 1866 he married the Honourable Cecil Emily Joliffe (1838-1899), daughter of the Right Honourable Sir William George Hylton Joliffe, 1st Baron Hylton and Eleonor Paget.

Lord Sefton died on 27 June 1897 at Sefton House, Belgrave Square, London.

'The Earl of Sefton, who has been lying ill for a considerable time at Sefton House, Belgrave-square, died last evening shortly before eleven o'clock. He was born in 1835, and succeeded his father as fourth Earl in 1855. He married, in 1866, a daughter of Lord Hylton, by whom he had a family of five children. The late Earl was for some time an officer of the Grenadier Guards, and was Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, where the family of Molyneux had been settled since the Norman conquest. The successor to the Earldom is the deceased nobleman's eldest son, Viscount Molyneux, who was born in 1867' (London Evening Standard, 28 June 1897).

Photographed by the Southwell Brothers of London.