Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater

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Francis Egerton

Francis Egerton
Born 21 May 1736
Died 8 March 1803
Nationality United Kingdom

Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (21 May 1736 – 8 March 1803) (also the 6th Earl of Bridgewater), known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman, younger son of the 1st Duke. He did not marry, and the Dukedom expired with him, although the Earldom was retained through John William Egerton.

He is famous as the originator of British inland navigation, the commissioner of the Bridgewater Canal—often said to be the first true canal in Britain and the modern world (see below for a qualification)—which was built for him by James Brindley to service his coal mines at Worsley, in Lancashire.

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[edit] Forebears

Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater (1681–1745), was the son of the 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, and was created a Duke in 1720; he was the great-grandson of John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater (d. 1649; cr. 1617), whose name is associated with the production of Milton's Comus; and the latter was the son of Sir Thomas Egerton (1540–1617), Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper and James I.'s Lord Chancellor, who was created Baron Ellesmere in 1603, and Viscount Brackley in 1616.

[edit] Biography of the 3rd Duke

Francis Egerton succeeded to the Dukedom at the age of twelve on the death of his brother, the 2nd Duke. As a child he was sickly and of such unpromising intellectual capacity that at one time the idea of cutting the entail was seriously entertained. Shortly after attaining his majority he became engaged to the beautiful Duchess of Hamilton, but her refusal to give up the acquaintance of her sister, Lady Coventry, led to the breaking off of the match. Thereupon the Duke broke up his London establishment, and retiring to his estate at Worsley, devoted himself to the making of canals.

[edit] Great Works – the Worsley-Manchester and Liverpool-Manchester Canals

The navigable canal from Worsley to Manchester which he projected for the transport of the coal obtained on his estates is usually cited as the first modern British canal (as opposed to a river navigation)—though the Sankey canal is a rival to this claim (projected as a "navigation", but built as a true canal). The construction of Bridgewater's canal, with its famous aqueduct across the Irwell, was carried out by James Brindley, the celebrated engineer.

The completion of this first canal led the Duke to undertake a still more ambitious work. In 1762 he obtained parliamentary powers to provide an improved waterway between Liverpool and Manchester by means of a canal. The difficulties encountered in the execution of this canal were still more formidable than those of the Worsley canal, involving, as they did, the carrying of the canal over Sale Moor Moss. But the genius of Brindley, his engineer, proved superior to all obstacles, and though at one period of the undertaking the financial resources of the Duke were almost exhausted, the work was carried to a triumphant conclusion.

Both these canals were completed when Bridgewater was only thirty-six years of age, and the remainder of his life was spent in extending them and in improving his estates; and during the latter years of his life he derived a princely income from the success of his enterprise. Though a steady supporter of Pitt's administration, he never took any prominent part in politics.

The untiring perseverance displayed by the Duke in surmounting the various difficulties that retarded the accomplishment of his projects, together with the pecuniary restrictions he imposed on himself in order to supply the necessary capital (at one time he reduced his personal expenses to £400 a year), affords an instructive example of that energy and self-denial on which the success of great undertakings so much depends.

[edit] Wealth

He accumulated great wealth through his canal and coal interests, and his annual income was said to have exceeded £80,000. The family owned three estates at the time: Belton House, a small Sussex estate, and the old house and 6,000 acres (24 km²) at his house of Ashridge.

With the Bridgewater fortune now exceeding £2,000,000, and the Duke being the richest noble in England, he set about rebuilding Ashridge. He began to pull the old buildings down, but died before his plans could be completed, leaving his heir with nothing but a pile of rubble.

[edit] Legacy

The Duke died unmarried on 8 March 1803, and the Ducal title became extinct (although the Earldom of Bridgewater passed to a cousin, John William Egerton, who became 7th Earl).

By his will he devised his canals and estates on trust, under which his nephew, the Marquess of Stafford (afterwards first Duke of Sutherland), became the first beneficiary, and next his son Francis Leveson Gower (afterwards first Earl of Ellesmere) and his issue. In order that the trust should last as long as possible, an extraordinary use was made of the legal rule that property may be settled for the duration of lives in being and twenty-one years after. The legatees were a great number of persons connected with the Duke and their living issue, plus all peers who had taken their seats in the House of Lords on or before the Duke's decease. The last of the peers died in 1857, but one of the commoners survived till the 19th of October 1883, so the trust did not expire until 19 October 1903, when the whole property passed under the undivided control of the Earl of Ellesmere. (The canals, however, had been transferred to the Bridgewater Navigation Company in 1872, by whom they were sold in 1887 to the Manchester Ship Canal Company.)

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[edit] See also


Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
John Egerton		 Duke of Bridgewater
1748 – 1803		 Extinct
Peerage of England
Preceded by
John Egerton		 Earl of Bridgewater
2nd creation
1748 – 1803		 Succeeded by
John William Egerton

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