William Baird (MP)



William Baird of Elie DL (23 April 1796 – 8 March 1864), was a Scottish industrialist and the Tory Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk Burghs.

He was born near Old Monklands as the eldest son of Alexander Baird and Jean Moffat. After a farming beginning, his father took out a lease on coal reserves on the Rochsolloch Estate between Coatbridge and Airdrie. He put two of his sons in charge of the business and the company of William Baird & Co was formed. The family would later set up the large ironworks known as Bairds of Gartsherrie, which William's younger brother James would lead after William's retirement from the business.

He was first elected at the 1841 general election, and held the seat until he resigned from Parliament on 2 May 1846, by the procedural device of becoming Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.

The resulting by-election in Falkirk was won by the Tory candidate, Henry Pelham-Clinton, known by his courtesy title "Earl of Lincoln". When Lincoln acceded to his Dukedom in 1851, Baird's brother James was elected in his place.

In 1853, he acquired the Elie estate in Fife, which as inherited by his eldest son William (1848-1918). His younger son John George Alexander Baird was also an MP.

He died in Edinburgh in 1861.