 The next year, though, Williamson was elevated to the peerage as Baron Ashton, of Ashton in the County Palatine of Lancaster, during the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours of Lord Rosebery.Williamson's peerage was one of two in Lord Rosebery's honours list that led to heavy criticism, including from the Duke of Devonshire, head of the Liberal Unionist Party, who insinuated that Williamson had bought his title.Lord Rosebery explained that the creation of the two peerages were a "point of honour" as they had been promised by Gladstone, and added that the idea they had been sold was "an infamous lie."