Baron Fitton of Gawsworth was a Jacobite peerage created by James II in 1689 for his Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Alexander Fitton ( died 1698 ).
The family origins trace back to Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, where the first William Rathbone was born in 1669, as the son of Phillip Rathbone.
Brought up in Gawsworth, William Rathbone II set off for Liverpool where in 1742 he established the timber business that became Rathbone Brothers.