Peter Rylands (18 January 1820 – 8 February 1887) was an English wire manufacturer in Lancashire and a Liberal politician who was active in local government and sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1868 and 1887.

[3] He had directorships of the Manchester and Liverpool Banking Co., of the Bridgewater Navigation Co., of Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Co., Limited, and of Rylands Brothers, Limited, iron masters and wire manufacturers.

[1] He lost his Warrington seat at the 1874 general election,[4] when he also stood unsuccessfully in the South-Eastern Division of Lancashire.

[8] Rylands lived at Massey Hall, Thelwall which he left to the local authority for educational purposes.

[8] His eldest son, the author L. Gordon Rylands, published an edition of his letters.