Josslyn Pennington, 5th Baron Muncaster

Who was Josslyn Pennington, 5th Baron Muncaster?

Josslyn Francis Pennington, 5th Baron Muncaster DL JP, was a British soldier and Conservative politician.

Muncaster was the third son of Lowther Augustus John Pennington, 3rd Baron Muncaster, and his wife Frances Catherine, daughter of Sir John Ramsden, 4th Baronet. He was a Captain in the Rifle Brigade and fought in the Crimean War. In 1862 he succeeded his elder brother in the barony. As this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to an automatic seat in the House of Lords. Muncaster was instead elected to the House of Commons for Cumberland West in 1872, a seat he held until 1880, and later represented Egremont from 1885 to 1892. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Cumberland and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Cumberland between 1876 and 1917. In 1898 he was created Baron Muncaster, of Muncaster in the County of Cumberland, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords.

Part of his estate at Gillbrow near Lindal was leased to Harrison Ainslie by the 4th Baronet. The remainder of the ore bearing ground was leased to Parkside Mining Company in 1878.

Lord Muncaster married Constance, daughter of Edmund L'Estrange, in 1863. They had no children. He died in March 1917, aged 82, when all his titles became extinct. Lady Muncaster survived him by only four months and died in July 1917.