Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

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Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Carlo Pellegrini , 1869

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (born April 28, 1801 in London , † October 1, 1885 in Folkestone , Kent ), was a well-known British politician and philanthropist of the Victorian era .

He was the eldest son of Cropley Ashley Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury , and Lady Anne Spencer, daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough . As his father's apparent marriage , he carried the courtesy title of Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851 . He was at the Harrow School in London and the Christ Church College of Oxford University trained.

In 1826 he was first elected to the House of Commons for the Tories . He was MP for Woodstock constituency from 1826 , Dorchester 1830-1831 , Dorset 1832-1846, and Bath 1847-1851 . When his father died in 1851, he inherited his title as 7th Earl of Shaftesbury . He received a seat in the House of Lords , which is why he left the House of Commons. From 1834 to 1835 he held the office of Lord of the Admiralty . From 1856 to 1885 he held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. In 1862 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion .

In parliament from 1832 he became the leader of the factory reform movement . He was largely responsible for the Factory Acts of 1847 and 1853 as well as for the Coal Mines Act of 1842 and for the Lunacy Act of 1845. One of his main interests was the child's welfare; he became chairman of the Ragged Schools Union and a strong supporter of Florence Nightingale , and he also supported Thomas John Barnardo in his charitable work. He is considered to be the driving force behind English evangelicalism in the mid-19th century.

“Above all else, I am an evangelical and belong to this movement. I have worked with them all the time and I am very pleased that most of the philanthropic movements of the century have come from them. "

- Lord Shaftesbury, 1884

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in London's Piccadilly Circus was built in 1893 to commemorate his philanthropic deeds. The monument is crowned by Alfred Gilbert's aluminum figure of a naked winged archer. This is officially called the Angel of Christian Charity , but has become popular as Eros . The depiction of a naked figure on a public monument was controversial at the time; however, the statue has since become a London icon and has made its place on the headline of the Evening Standard .

On June 10, 1830 he married Lady Emily Caroline Catherine Frances Cowper († 1872), the daughter of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper . They had five children:

literature

Web links

Commons : Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Derek J. Tidball: Keyword Evangelical . Anglican Evangelicalism . Ed .: Dieter Sackmann. Edition Anker in the Christian publishing house, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7675-7058-0 , p. 91 (English: Who are the Evangelicals? - Tracing the roots of today's movements . Translated by Dieter Sackmann).
  2. ↑ Derek J. Tidball: Keyword Evangelical . The age of societies and missions . Ed .: Dieter Sackmann. Edition Anker in the Christian publishing house, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7675-7058-0 , p. 264 (English: Who are the Evangelicals? - Tracing the roots of today's movements . Translated by Dieter Sackmann).
predecessor Office successor
Cropley Ashley Cooper Earl of Shaftesbury
1851-1885 		Anthony Ashley-Cooper
personal data
SURNAME Ashley-Cooper, Anthony, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1885
Place of death Folkestone (Kent)