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474px-Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere by Edwin Longsden Long

Francis Egerton (1800-1857). Portrait by Edwin Longsden Long (1829-1891). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Francis Egerton, 1st earl of Ellesmere (1 January 1800 - 18 February 1857) was an English poet and statesman.[1]

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Egerton was born Francis Leveson-Gower at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London. He was the younger son of George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd marquis of Stafford (who was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833, the year of his death), and Elizabeth, countess of Sutherland, only daughter of William Gordon, 17th earl of Sutherland.

Francis was at Eton from 1811 to 1814, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford.[1]

Career[]

On 6 August 1819 Egerton became a lieutenant in the Staffordshire regiment of yeomanry, and was promoted to captain on 27 September in the same year.[1]

On 18 June 1822 he married Harriet Catherine, only daughter of Charles Greville, by Charlotte, eldest daughter of William, third duke of Portland. She was also born on 1 January 1800, and died on 17 April 1866.[1]

At an early age he attempted literature, and in 1823 brought out a translation of Faust, a drama, by Goethe, and Schiller's Song of the Bell.[1]

He was elected M.P. for Bletchingley, Surrey, 19 February 1822, and commenced his public career as a liberal-conservative of the Canning school. He spoke eloquently in behalf of free trade more than 20 years before Sir Robert Peel had embraced that policy; carried in the House of Commons a motion for the endowment of the catholic clergy, and warmly supported the project of the London University. On 26 June 1826 he became M.P. for Sutherlandshire, was re-elected for that county in 1830, and afterwards sat for South Lancasnire in the parliaments of 1836, 1837, 1841, and until July 1846. In the meantime he had held office as a lord of the treasury (April to September 1827), under-secretary of state for the colonies (January to May 1828), chief secretary to the Marquis of Anglesey, lord-lieutenant of Ireland (21 June 1828 to 30 July 1830), and secretary at war (30 July to 30 Nov. 1830). He was named a privy councillor 28 June 1828, and a privy councillor for Ireland 9 August 1828.[1]

On the death of his father in 1833 he assumed the surname and arms of Egerton alone, and under the will of his uncle, Francis Henry Egerton, 8th earl of Bridgewater, became the owner of a property estimated at £90,000 per annum. He spent the winter of 1839 in the East, traveling in his own yacht to the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. The result of his observations appeared in Mediterranean Sketches, 1843.[1]

A portion of his wealth was put to a generous use in his support of men of genius and in his building a gallery at his town residence in Cleveland Row, to which the public were very freely admitted, for the magnificent collection of paintings which he had inherited. He was president of the British Association at the Manchester meeting in 1842, served as president of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1849, and was president of the Royal Geographical Society 1854-1855.[1] He was also a member of the Roxburghe Club.[2]

He died at Bridgewater House, London, on 18 February 1857, and was buried at Worsley, near Manchester, on 26 February.[1]

Recognition[]

Egerton was awarded a D.C.L. at the commemoration at Oxford on 10 June 1834, named a trustee of the National Gallery on 26 February 1835, and appointed a rector of King's College, Aberdeen, in October 1838.[1]

On 30 June 1846 he was created Viscount Brackley of Brackley and earl of Ellesmere, and on 7 February 1855 was made a knight of the Garter.[1]

A commemorative monument, designed by G.G. Scott, R.A., was erected at his gravesite in 1860.[1]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Plays[]

  • Dramatic scenes, founded on Victor Hugo's tragedy of Hernani. 1831.[2]
  • King Alfred: A drama in one act. 1840; London: T.H. Lacy, 1870.
  • Bluebeard; or, Dangerous curiosity and justifiable homicide: A tragedy in two acts. London: T. Bretell, 1841.

Novels[]

  • The Mill: A Moravian tale, founded on fact. London: S. & R. Bentley, 1826.
  • Jem Carruthers: The extraordinary adventures of an ordinary man. London: 1900.

Non-fiction[]

  • Speech to the Electors of the Southern District of Lancashire. Manchester, UK: T. Sowler, 1834.
  • The Swell's Night Guide through the Metropolis. London: privately published, printed by Roger Funnyman, 1841.
  • Marriage with a Eeceased Wife's Sister: House of Commons, 9 March, 1842: Extracts from speech of Lord Francis Egerton. London: Marriage Law Reform Association, [1842?]
  • Mediterranean Sketches. London: John Murray, 1843.
  • National Defences: Letters of Lord Ellesmere. 1848.[2]
  • Guide to Northern Archæology. London: Bain, 1848.
  • On the life and Character of the Duke of Wellington. London: John Murray, 1852.
  • Memoir of the Duke of Wellington. London: Longmans Green, 1852.
  • The Eighteenth of November, 1852. London: 1853.
  • Addresses to the Royal Geographical Society of London. (2 volumes), London: W. Clowes, 1854, 1855.
  • The War in the Crimea: A discourse. London: John Murray, 1855.
  • Essays on History, Biography, Geography, Engineering,' &c., contributed to the 'Quarterly Review'. London: John Murray, 1858.
  • Personal Reminiscences of the Duke of Wellington (edited by Alice Byng Stafford). London: John Murray, 1903; New York: Dutton, 1903.

Translated[]

  • Faust: A drama, by Goethe / Schiller's Song of the Bell. London: John Murray, 1823.
  • M. Beer, The Puria: A tragedy 1830.[2]
  • Faust: A drama, by Goethe; with translations from the German. (2 volumes), London: John Murray, 1825. Volume I
  • Alexandre Dumas, Catherine of Cleves: A tragic drama in three acts. London: J. Andrews, 1831.
  • Alexandre Dumas & Victor Hugo, Catherine of Cleves and Hernani: Tragedies translated from the French. London: J. Andrews, 1832.
  • Charles Clausewitx, The Campaign of 1812 in Russia. 1843.[2]
  • Giovanni Pindemonte, Donna Charitea, Queen of Castille: A drama in three acts. London: privately published, printed by J. Bain, 1843.
  • Karl August Schimmer, The Sieges of Vienna by the Turks; from the German. London: John Murray, 1847.
  • Michele Amari, History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. London: R. Bentley, 1850.
  • Military Events in Italy, 1848-9; translated from the German. 1851.[2]
  • Ibn Zafer, Solwan; or, The waters of comfort. 1852.[2]
  • Pierre Joseph d'Orléans, History of the two Tartar Conquerors of China. London: Hakluyt Society, 1854; New York: Burt Franklin, [1963?]


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]

See also[]

References[]

  • PD-icon Boase, George Clement (1889) "Egerton, Francis (1800-1857)" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 17 London: Smith, Elder, p. 153 . Wikisource, Web, June 13, 2016.

Notes[]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Boase, 153.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Francis Egerton (1800-1857), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, June 13, 2016.
  3. Search results = au:Francis Egerton 1800-1857, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 13, 2016.

External links[]

Poems
Books
About

PD-icon This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Egerton, Francis (1800-1857)

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