Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere

Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG, PC (1 January 1800 – 18 February 1857), known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833, was a British politician, writer, traveller and patron of the arts.^[1][2] Ellesmere Island, a major island (10th in size among global islands) in Nunavut, the Canadian Arctic, was named after him.

Background and education

Ellesmere was the second son of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife, Elizabeth Gordon suo jure 19th Countess of Sutherland. He was born at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 1 January 1800, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

Political career

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 politics he was a moderate Conservative of independent views, as was shown by his support for the proposal to establish a University of London, also by making and carrying a motion for the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland, and by advocating free trade long before Sir Robert Peel yielded on the question. Appointed a Lord of the Treasury in 1827, he held the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1828 till July 1830, when he became Secretary at War for a short time during the last Tory ministry.

In 1833 he assumed, by Royal Licence, the surname of Egerton, having succeeded on the death of his father to the estates which the latter inherited from the Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.^[3] 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.^[4]

Ellesmere was a member of the Canterbury Association from 27 March 1848.^[5] In 1849, the chief surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas, named Lake Ellesmere in New Zealand after him.^[5][6][7]

Writings, travels and art patronage

Ellesmere's claims to remembrance are founded chiefly on his services to literature and the fine arts. Before he was twenty he printed for private circulation a volume of poems, which he followed up after a short interval by the publication of a translation of Goethe's Faust, one of the earliest that appeared in England, with some translations of German lyrics and a few original poems. In 1839 he visited the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. His impressions of travel were recorded in Mediterranean Sketches (1843) and in the notes to a poem entitled The Pilgrimage. He published several other works in prose and verse. His literary reputation secured for him the position of rector of the University of Aberdeen in 1841.

A singular exception to the artistic and literary character of Ellesmere's writing efforts lay in the field of military theory. Ellesmere, as a protegé of the Duke of Wellington, became very interested in the historical writings of the Prussian military theorist General Carl von Clausewitz (1789-1831). He was involved in the discussion that ultimately compelled Wellington to write an essay^[8] in response to Clausewitz's study of the Waterloo campaign of 1815. Ellesmere himself anonymously published a translation of Clausewitz's The Campaign of 1812 in Russia (London: J. Murray, 1843), a subject in which Wellington was also deeply interested.^[9]

Lord Ellesmere was a munificent and yet discriminating patron of artists. To the collection of pictures which he inherited from his great-uncle, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, he made numerous additions, and he built a gallery to which the public were allowed free access. Lord Ellesmere served as president of the Royal Geographical Society and as president of the Royal Asiatic Society (1849–1852), and he was a trustee of the National Gallery. He also initiated the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, by donating the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare.

Family

On 18 June 1822, he married Harriet Catherine Greville,^[10] a great-great-granddaughter of the 5th Baron Brooke. 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 Harriot 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 (c. 1834-1851), who was killed at sea; unmarried, seemingly no issue.

The family lived at Hatchford Park, Cobham, Surrey, where Lady Ellesmere laid out the gardens.^[11] Her mother, Lady Charlotte Greville (née Cavendish-Bentinck) died at Hatchford Park on 28 July 1862, aged 86.^[12]

Francis died on 18 February 1857 at his London home, 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.

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Ellesmere
• Portraits of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Archival material relating to Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere listed at the UK National Archives
•  "Ellesmere, Francis Egerton, first Earl of". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 

Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society 19th century Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich George Murray Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet William Richard Hamilton George Bellas Greenough Roderick Murchison Charles Abbot, 2nd Baron Colchester W. J. Hamilton William Henry Smyth Roderick Murchison Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere Frederick William Beechey Roderick Murchison Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton Roderick Murchison Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Henry Bartle Frere Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Rutherford Alcock Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne Richard Strachey Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff Sir Clements Robert Markham 20th century George Taubman Goldie Leonard Darwin George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Douglas Freshfield Thomas Holdich Francis Younghusband Lawrence Dundas, Earl of Ronaldshay David George Hogarth Charles Close William Goodenough Percy Zachariah Cox Henry Balfour Philip Chetwode, 1st Baron Chetwode George Clark Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell Harry Lindsay James Wordie James Marshall-Cornwall Roger Nathan, 2nd Baron Nathan Raymond Priestley Dudley Stamp Gilbert Laithwaite Edmund Irving Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton Duncan Cumming John Hunt, Baron Hunt Michael Wise Vivian Fuchs George Bishop Roger Chorley, 2nd Baron Chorley Crispin Tickell George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne 21st century Ronald Urwick Cooke Neil Cossons Gordon Conway Michael Palin Judith Rees

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