Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere

Ellesmere worked between 1800 and 1857 across politician, writer, statesperson, translator and poet and 2 further recorded occupations. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere studied at Christ Church and Eton College. The recorded working language is English. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Residence is recorded at Bridgewater House. Positions recorded include Member of the Privy Council of Ireland and Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Works named in the authority record are Bridgewater Collection. Work by Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere is recorded in the collections of Philadelphia Museum of Art and J. Paul Getty Museum. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Fellow of the Geological Society of London and Knight of the Garter.

• Honorific Prefix — The Right Honourable • Name — The Earl of Ellesmere • Honorific Suffix — KG PC PC (Ire) • Order1 — Chief Secretary for Ireland • Term Start1 — 1828 6 21 • Term End1 — 1830 7 30 • Monarch1 — George IV William IV • Prime Minister1 — The Duke of Wellington • Predecessor1 — Hon. William Lamb • Successor1 — Sir Henry Hardinge • Order2 — Secretary at War • Term Start2 — 1830 7 30 • Term End2 — 1830 11 15 • Monarch2 — William IV • Prime Minister2 — The Duke of Wellington • Predecessor2 — Sir Henry Hardinge • Successor2 — Charles Williams-Wynn • Born — 1800 • Birth Name — Francis Egerton • Birthplace — Piccadilly, London • Died — 18 February 1857 • Place of death — Westminster, London • Party — Tory • Education — Eton College • Alma Mater — Christ Church, Oxford • Children — 11, including: George Egerton, 2nd Earl of Ellesmere Hon. Francis Egerton Hon. Algernon Egerton • Parents — George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland Elizabeth Gordon, 19th Countess of Sutherland • Illustration — Garter-encircled arms of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, KG, PC

Ellesmere was born at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 1 January 1800, the third son of George Leveson-Gower (then known as Lord Gower) and his wife, Elizabeth Gordon who was 19th Countess of Sutherland in her own right. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and then held a commission in the Life Guards, which he resigned on his marriage. In October 1803 his father became Marquess of Stafford, having shortly before inherited the considerable wealth (but not the titles) of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, whose will provided that the Bridgewater estates should next pass to Francis, rather than his elder brother George.

Egerton entered Parliament in 1822 as member for the pocket borough of Bletchingley in Surrey, a seat he held until 1826. He afterwards sat for Sutherland between 1826 and 1831, and for South Lancashire between 1835 and 1846. In 1835, a parliamentary sketch-writer said of his performance in the Commons: "He hardly ever speaks, and then but very indifferently… His voice is harsh and husky and not very strong. There is no variety either in it or in his gesture. Both are monotonous in a high degree... He is much respected by his own party, both for his personal worth, and for his high family connexions. " In politics he was a Conservative who – as he later said – 'worshipped' Wellington; on specific policies his views usually led him to support Sir Robert Peel; the most obvious exception being his support of the Ten-Hour movement. In 1823, he was a junior member of the mission of FitzRoy Somerset sent by Wellington to Madrid. On the religious issues of the day, he held that the state and its institutions should remain Anglican, but that – provided that was done – other sects should be conciliated as far as was then possible. He opposed opening the ancient universities to Dissenters, arguing that they could get equally good education elsewhere; e.g. at London University, whose formation he had supported. In 1825 he was chosen to move the Loyal Address; later in the year he made and saw carried a motion for the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland, at a time when the government were pledged to seek the consent of the King before doing so: some suspected he did so at the behest of the government. Appointed a Lord of the Treasury in 1827, he was promoted to Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in February 1828 at the request of William Huskisson, having first to overcome the opposition of his father. When Huskisson resigned in May 1828, Egerton's father insisted upon Egerton's resignation; on Egerton's subsequent account because he thought the Wellington cabinet had lost its more enlightened elements and would now take a hard line against Catholic Relief. Egerton, however, was convinced that Wellington intended some measure of relief and soon rejoined the government; in June 1828 he was made a Privy Councillor and appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, a post he held until July 1830, when he became Secretary at War for a short time during the last Tory ministry. Daniel O'Connell, when alleging duplicity by the subsequent Whig administration, said "I never knew a gentleman more incapable of violating his promise than Lord Francis Leveson Gower" Sutherland was a pocket county of his family and when in 1831 his father supported parliamentary reform but Francis did not, his father presented the seat to a supporter of reform: in 1833 his father was made Duke of Sutherland.

His father, however, died within the year, and the estates he had inherited from Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater passed to Francis, who then took, by royal licence, the surname of Egerton. The Bridgewater estates were held under trust and gave an annual income reported to be £90,000, but the trust was drawn up to exclude Egerton from its day-to-day management. The principal assets were the Bridgewater Canal, and the collieries at Worsley, which also served as the headquarters of the canal.

In a letter of 1837, Egerton spoke of the various undertakings at Worsley giving him influence over the immediate destinies of between three and four thousand people. The coal mines at Worsley were said in 1837 to employ 1,700 people. It was reported in 1842 that there had been 101 persons killed and injured in them in the previous three years One of the staff of the 1833 Factory Commission had noted that the Worsley mine "was said to be the best mine in the place" but concluded from what he saw that "the hardest labour in the worst-conducted factory is less hard, less cruel, and less demoralizing than the labour in the best of coal-mines" One trustee lived in Worsley Old Hall and was the effective manager of the estates, but after he resisted inspection of the books by Egerton's auditor and man of business James Loch MP he was forced out and replaced by Loch. Egerton then made Worsley New Hall one of his principal residences, but soon demolished it and replaced it with a larger hall in Elizabethan style. He set about making Worsley a model estate village; within ten years a national newspaper, deploring the 'ignorance of the collier class' claimed "What may be done by a proprietor, what should be done by every proprietor, is illustrated in the case of Lord Francis Egerton and the Worsley colliers". Until Egerton had taken up residence at Worsley it had been "imperfectly provided with the means of moral and intellectual improvement for the people" but now "The population is nearly 6,000. For their use, two churches have been built, and a third is now in course of erection. Five clergymen have been provided, in addition to the one original incumbent. Seven-day schools have been established, with trained masters and mistresses, fully supplied with the best books and apparatus. A reading-room has been opened, containing the best periodicals of the day, and a considerable circulating library. The room is provided with fire and lights; is open every evening; and is much frequented by the labouring people, as an agreeable resort after their day's work. A large field, of not less than sixty acres, has been set apart as a recreation ground… Cricket, quoits, and other athletic games are encouraged; and the private band occasionally attends there on pay-days. In the centre, an ornamental building has been erected, in which the wages of all the labourers on that part of the estate are paid fortnightly. There are few public-houses and no beer-shops on the estate. The houses built for the workmen are convenient; most of them have four rooms and a pantry, back-yard and garden, at a rent of about £3 per annum, including rates" Worsley Hall served as a suitable base for royal visits to Manchester (the first occurring in 1851) and Egerton presided at the 1842 meeting of the British Association of Science in Manchester but Egerton had little influence in Manchester; when his name was put forward for presidency of the Manchester Athenaeum, Richard Cobden was brought forward as an alternative candidate, and duly elected. Egerton's politics (Tory and protectionist) were not those of (Reform and Free Trade) Manchester, and his association with the Bridgewater trust also told against him.

The canal was highly profitable, and owed much of its profitability to price-fixing agreements with its rivals; this led to resentment in both Liverpool and Manchester of its wealth and influence (and hence that of Egerton). After 1810, when they had agreed to charge identical rates, the canal and the Mersey and Irwell Navigation ('the Old Quay Company') had enjoyed a profitable duopoly of Manchester-Liverpool goods traffic (not because each had exclusive use of their waterway, but because each had a monopoly of Manchester warehouses with easy access to their waterway). The Liverpool and Manchester Railway had been promoted to allow greater volumes of traffic between the two towns, and to bring down transport costs. However, faced with strenuous opposition from Egerton's father, the railway's promoters had won him round to the extent that he had subscribed for over a fifth of the company's capital with a corresponding presence on the board. The shares had been inherited, not by Egerton, but by his brother, the 2nd Duke of Sutherland; Loch was also auditor and principal steward for the Duke, as well as personally holding shares in the railway. When the railway opened, the rates charged by two previous carriers settled down just below the maximum (ten shillings a ton) the railway was allowed to charge by its act of Parliament. When the Old Quay Company later significantly reduced its freight charges, they were bought out by Egerton personally (1843) and the previous charges reinstated: the Bridgewater trust then bought the company from him (for over half a million pounds) once they had obtained the requisite powers. After the railway was absorbed into the London and North Western Railway, there was a brief period of fierce competition for goods traffic, with the rate for transport of cotton from Liverpool to Manchester dropping by two-thirds. A more profitable modus vivendi was soon restored, however; in 1858, after the canal had joined the railway conference on freight rates, the Liverpool Mail thought it 'notorious that the exorbitant rates for railway and water carriage between Liverpool and Manchester are kept up by means of powerful combinations between the Railway interest and the Bridgewater Canal interest' Hence, although Egerton offered on succeeding to the Bridgewater estate to pay for a large statue of the Duke of Bridgewater in Manchester if the town authorities would identify a suitable site for it the offer was never taken up.

In Peel's resignation honours (June 1846), Egerton was the only person raised to the peerage. He became Earl of Ellesmere and Baron Brackley (a revival of titles formerly held as subsidiary titles by the Earls of Bridgewater). The Times commented on Egerton's elevation: "The only other circumstance of a Ministerial 'going out' worth mention is the reported elevation of Lord Francis Egerton to the Upper House. His Lordship's position by birth and inheritance is so splendid, and so thoroughly sustained by his character and talents, that his accession to the Peerage seems little more than the correction of an accidental anomaly. He adds, at least, as much to the credit of the order as he can possibly receive in return." Ellesmere served on the Commons Select Committee on the affairs of New Zealand in 1844, and was a member of the Canterbury Association from 27 March 1848. In 1849, the chief surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas, named Lake Ellesmere in New Zealand after him.

On 18 June 1822, at St George's, Hanover Square he was married to Harriet Catherine Greville, a daughter of Charles Greville (1762–1832), a great-great-granddaughter of the 5th Baron Brooke. The Archbishop of York officiated and the Duke of Wellington (whose private secretary was a brother of the bride) was one of the witnesses. They had eleven children, including: • George Egerton, 2nd Earl of Ellesmere (15 June 1823 – 19 September 1862); • Hon. Francis Egerton (15 September 1824 – 15 December 1895), who became an admiral, and was a Member of Parliament for two constituencies; he married in 1865 (Lady) Louisa Caroline née Cavendish, daughter of the 7th Duke of Devonshire (by marriage); they had issue; • Hon. Algernon Fulke Egerton (31 December 1825 – 14 July 1891), who was a Member of Parliament for three constituencies, and married in 1863 Hon. Alice Louisa Cavendish, a niece of the 7th Duke of Devonshire; they had issue; • Hon. Arthur Frederick Egerton (6 February 1829 – 25 February 1866), who became Lieutenant-Colonel, and married in 1858 Helen Smith, daughter of Martin Tucker Smith and his wife, Louisa Ridley; they had issue; • Lady Alice Harriet Frederica Egerton (10 October 1830 – 22 December 1928), who married George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford in 1854; they had no issue; • Lady Blanche Egerton (22 February 1832 – 20 March 1894), who married John Montagu, 7th Earl of Sandwich in 1865 as his second wife; they had no issue; • Hon. Granville Egerton (baptised 28 October 1834 – 1851), who was killed by the bursting of his gun when shooting in California - at the time he was a midshipman on HMS Maeander returning from the East India station via California to collect treasure; unmarried, seemingly no issue. In 1846 he was raised to the peerage as Earl of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the County of Salop, with the subsidiary title Viscount Brackley, of Brackley in the County of Northampton. Viscount Ellesmere and Baron Brackley had been subsidiary titles of the Earls of Bridgewater until the extinction of that title in 1829. When in town, the family lived at Bridgewater House, St. James' Park; their country seats were Oatlands, which Egerton rented until 1843; Worsley, (from 1837) where Egerton later replaced the existing hall (described as neither commodious for the family, nor agreeable to his Lordship's taste) at a cost of £100,000. After leaving Oatlands, their Surrey seat was Hatchford Park, Cobham, Surrey, where Lady Ellesmere laid out the gardens. Her mother, Lady Charlotte Greville (née Cavendish-Bentinck) died at Hatchford Park on 28 July 1862, aged 86. Francis died on 18 February 1857 at Bridgwater House, St. James' Park; and was succeeded by his first son, George. On the extinction of the senior line of the Dukedom of Sutherland in 1963, his great-great-grandson, the fifth Earl, succeeded as 6th Duke of Sutherland.

The authorities additionally record the headings Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, Francis, 1st Earl of Ellesmere Egerton, Francis Egerton, Francis Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere and Earl of Ellesmere Francis Egerton. His recorded language was English. He was the child of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland and Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland. He married Harriet Catherine Greville. 4 children are recorded: George Egerton, 2nd Earl of Ellesmere, Algernon Egerton, Francis Egerton and Alice Harriet Frederica Egerton.

Recorded positions include Member of the Privy Council of Ireland, Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, member of the 14th Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom and member of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom. He belonged to Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Chetham Society and Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He worked at London and Bridgewater House.

Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere is recorded with the occupation philanthropist. Ellesmere worked at London. Recorded as having studied at Christ Church and Eton College.