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Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Anthony Ashley Cooper 7th earl of Shaftesbury
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(born April 28, 1801, London, Eng. — died Oct. 1, 1885, Folkestone, Kent) English politician and social reformer. When his father succeeded to the earldom in 1811, Cooper became Lord Ashley. As a member of Parliament (1826 – 51), he opposed the Reform Bill of 1832 but supported Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Corn Laws. From 1833 he led the factory reform movement in Parliament and effected passage of the Mines Act (1842) and the Ten Hours Act (1847), known as Lord Ashley's Act, which shortened the working day in textile mills. As president of the Ragged Schools Union (1843 – 83), he promoted the free education of destitute children. Succeeding to his father's title in 1851, he continued his work as one of the most effective social reformers of 19th-century England. He also led the Evangelical movement within the Church of England and financially supported several missionary societies.

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Biography: Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
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The English social reformer and philanthropist Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885), was a leading exponent in Victorian England of reform of a multitude of social evils.

Anthony Ashley Cooper was born on April 28, 1801, and was known as Lord Ashley until he succeeded his father as Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851. His childhood was not happy, his father's relationship with him being both distant and harsh. For reasons not completely known, though partly through the influence of a family servant, Lord Ashley early became an Evangelical and always remained, as he put it, "an Evangelical of the Evangelicals." This creed meant a fervent belief in Protestant Anglicanism; the orientation of his life and work by religion; hostility to modernism and secularism on the one hand and to Rome and Roman Catholic tendencies in his Church on the other; and, finally, infinite compassion for the poor, the helpless, and the unfortunate. "God had called me," he wrote, "to labour among the poor."

After Lord Ashley's election in 1826 as a Conservative member of Parliament, his first important speech urged the improvement of laws governing the treatment of the insane. He became chairman of the Lunacy Commissioners, established in that year, and he continued in that office until his death. In 1845 he wrote parliamentary acts to strengthen the controls against unjust institutionalization, to protect patients, to extend facilities, and to professionalize public supervision. He conducted a similar campaign against the employment - often under horrifying conditions - of small boys as chimney sweeps, and he became chairman of the Climbing Boys' Society, a typical Victorian reform society. After repeated efforts he finally secured passage of an effective statute in 1875 that introduced public licensing of the trade.

In the 1840s Lord Ashley adopted the Ragged School movement as another cause. This movement involved the provision of rudimentary education and housing for thousands of homeless children in London. His Lodging House Act (1851) provided for public licenses and inspection of lodgings, and during the Crimean War he instituted the Sanitary Commission. These achievements arose from his conversion to the cause of public health and from his service, from 1848 to 1854, as a commissioner of the new Board of Health.

Lord Ashley's most important and most famous work was conducted as a member of Parliament between 1832 and 1850. He was the leader of the struggle for statutory intervention in the hours and working conditions of children in English textile mills and also of women and children employed in mines. He later recorded that he took up the first cause quite unexpectedly and became suddenly convinced of his duty by "meditation and prayer." Over nearly 2 decades of deep social unrest he steadily fought for the limitation of the work of women and children to 10 hours a day, and he represented in Parliament a massive popular movement by the workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The victory in this cause was substantially won, after piecemeal acts in 1833 and 1844, by the famous Ten Hours Act of 1847. He had briefly withdrawn from Commons in 1846 and therefore could not lead the final effort. Earlier, in 1842, he had won a much quicker and more personal success with his Mines Act, which prohibited work underground by small boys and females.

Curiously, Lord Ashley's dedication was accompanied by a keen sense of the wearisome, thankless, and often inconclusive character of these reform efforts. Moreover, as a reformer, he was limited and even anachronistic in his outlook for his generation. He was antagonistic to political democracy and to trade unionism, to socialism and to public agitation arising from the lower classes, to secular education and to advances in scientific inquiry. His self-appointed career kept him aloof from politics, especially after 1846. When Lord Shaftesbury died, on Oct. 1, 1885, he had been much honored for his work, but he had also been bypassed by the political and social changes of the later Victorian era.

Further Reading

The best-known and most accessible biography of Shaftesbury is J. L. and Barbara Hammond, Lord Shaftesbury (1923; 4th ed. 1936). The standard Victorian study is Edwin Hodder, Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (3 vols., 1886-1887), which is valuable particularly for the extensive quotations from Shaftesbury's diaries. For a general discussion of Victorian social reform see David Roberts, Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State (1960). Cecil Driver, Tory Radical: The Life of Richard Oastler (1946), contains a rich and lively account of the movement for the Ten Hours Act.

British History: Antony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury
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Shaftesbury, Antony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of (1801-85). Philanthropist and social reformer. Lord Ashley (as he was styled until 1851) was a strict evangelical who devoted his whole life to promoting asuccession of reform causes: the Ten Hour Bill; the 1842 Mines Act; reform of the lunacy laws; abolition of child chimney-sweeping; public health and slum housing; ragged schools; the plight of agricultural labourers; training for destitute children (the Shaftesbury homes). He was motivated by a deep religious faith which was simple, rigid, and exclusive. Shaftesbury was the most active champion of Victorian evangelicalism as applied to all aspects of public life. Politically he was a Tory and opposed all forms of popular democracy.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of Shaftesbury
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Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of, 1801-85, English social reformer. He was known as Lord Ashley until 1851, when he succeeded his father as earl. Entering the House of Commons in 1826, he became a leading advocate of government action to alleviate the injustices caused by the Industrial Revolution. Notable legislation introduced by him included acts prohibiting employment of women and children in coal mines (1842), providing for care of the insane (1845), and establishing a 10-hr day for factory workers (1847). He promoted the building of model tenements and the "ragged schools" for waifs.

Bibliography

See biographies by J. L. Hammond and B. Hammond (4th ed. 1936), G. F. Best (1964), and G. Battiscombe (1975).

Wikipedia: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
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The Earl of Shaftesbury.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (28 April 1801 – 1 October 1885)[1], styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was an English politician and philanthropist, one of the best-known of the Victorian era.

Contents

Life

Shaftesbury was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford. He became a Tory MP (Member of Parliament) in 1826, and almost immediately became a leader of the movement for factory reform. He was largely responsible for the Factory Acts of 1847 and 1853, as well as the Coal Mines Act of 1842 and the Lunacy Act 1845. One of his chief interests was the welfare of children, and he was chairman of the Ragged Schools Union and a keen supporter of Florence Nightingale.

Shaftesbury was a proponent of the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land. Muhammad Ali’s conquest of Greater Syria (1831) changed the conditions under which European power politics operated in the Near East. As a consequence of that shift, Shaftesbury was able to help persuade Foreign Minister Palmerston to send a British consul to Jerusalem in 1838. A committed Christian and a loyal Englishman, Shaftesbury argued for a Jewish return because of what he saw as the political and economic advantages to England and because he believed that it was God’s will.

Bust of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, by F. Winter, 1886. In the collection of Dorset County museum, Dorchester.

In 1839 Shaftesbury published an article under the title "The State and the rebirth of the Jews". In it he urged the Jews to return to Palestine in order, according to him, to seize the lands of Galilee and Judea. Shaftesbury first put forward the slogan "Earth without people - people without land" and was agitation in this direction during the 57 years. His call is a positive response from various politicians, journalists and Christian religious leaders, both in Britain and America.[2]

The lead-up to the Crimean War (1854), like the military expansionism of Muhammad Ali two decades earlier, signaled an opening for realignments in the Near East. In July 1853, Shaftesbury wrote to Prime Minister Aberdeen that Greater Syria was

"a country without a nation" in need of "a nation without a country… Is there such a thing? To be sure there is, the ancient and rightful lords of the soil, the Jews!"

In his diary that year he wrote[3][4]

"these vast and fertile regions will soon be without a ruler, without a known and acknowledged power to claim dominion. The territory must be assigned to some one or other… There is a country without a nation; and God now in his wisdom and mercy, directs us to a nation without a country."

This is commonly cited as an early use of the phrase, "a land without a people for a people without a land". Shaftesbury was echoing another British proponent of the restoration of the Jews to Israel, Alexander Keith, D.D..

The Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London, erected in 1893, was designed to commemorate his philanthropic works. The Memorial is crowned by Alfred Gilbert's aluminium statue of Anteros as a nude, butterfly-winged archer. This is officially titled The Angel of Christian Charity, but has become popularly, if mistakenly, known as Eros. The use of a nude figure on a public monument was controversial at the time, but the statue has become a London icon and appears on the masthead of the Evening Standard. When erected the archer pointed down Lower Regent street.


At his funeral at Westminster Abbey on October 8 1885 he drew vast crowds in a way not matched until the death of Diana, Princes of Wales in 1997.[5] The eight pall-bearers were John MacGregor, H. R. Williams (King Edward Ragged and Industrial Schools) , Sir George Williams (founder of the YMCA), W J Orsman (Golden Lane Mission), Joseph George Gent (Hon. Secretary of the Ragged School Union from 1844 to 1879), William Williams (secretary of the Refuge for Homeless and Destitute Boys)[6], George Holland (George Yard Ragged School)[7], John Matthias Weylland (author of The Man with the Book, who served the London City Mission for forty years)[8]

Family

The Earl of Shaftesbury

Lord Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, married Lady Emily Caroline Catherine Frances Cowper (d. 15 October 1872), daughter of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper and more likely natural daughter of Lord Palmerston (later her official stepfather), on 10 June 1830. This marriage, which proved a happy and fruitful one, produced ten children as cited in "The Seventh Earl" by Grace Irwin. It also provided invaluable political connections for Ashley; his wife's maternal uncle was Lord Melbourne and her stepfather (and apparent father) Lord Palmerston, both Prime Ministers.

The children, who mostly suffered various degrees of ill-health, were[9]:

  1. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (27 June 1831 – 13 April 1886), ancestor of all subsequent earls.[10] He proved to be a disappointing heir apparent, constantly running up debts with his extravagant wife Harriet, born Lady Harriet Chichester.[11]
  2. Hon. (Anthony) Francis Henry Ashley-Cooper, second son (b. 13 March 1833[12] - 13 May 1849[13][14]
  3. Hon. (Anthony) Maurice William Ashley-Cooper, third son (22 July 1835-19 August 1855), died aged 20, after several years of illness.[15]
  4. Rt. Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (24 July 1836–15 November 1907), married 1stly 28 July 1866 Sybella Charlotte Farquhar (ca 1846 - 31 August 1886), daughter of Sir Walter Rockcliffe Farquhar, 3rd Bt. by his wife Lady Mary Octavia Somerset, a daughter of the Duke of Beaufort and had issue, one son and one daughter. His granddaughter was Hon. Edwina Ashley, later Lady Mountbatten (1901-60), whose two daughters Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Lady Pamela Hicks are still living today. Evelyn Ashley left several other descendants via his daughter and Edwina's younger sister. Evelyn Ashley married 30 June 1891 Lady Alice Elizabeth Cole (4 February 1853 - 25 August 1931), daughter of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen by his 1st wife Jane Casamajor, no issue. The Rt Hon Evelyn Melbourne Ashley died 15 November 1907.
  5. Lady Victoria Elizabeth Ashley, later Lady Templemore (23 September 1837[16] - 15 February 1927), married 8 January 1873 (aged 35) St George's, Hanover Square, London Harry Chichester, 2nd Baron Templemore (4 June 1821 - 10 June 1906), son of Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Templemore and Lady Augusta Paget, and had issue. [17]
  6. Hon (Anthony) Lionel George Ashley-Cooper (b. 7 September 1838 - 1914)[18]. He md 12 December 1868 Frances Elizabeth Leigh "Fanny (d. 12 August 1875), daughter of Capel Hanbury Leigh[19]; apparently had no issue.
  7. Lady Mary Charlotte Ashley-Cooper, second daughter (25 July 1842[20] - 3 September 1861[21].
  8. Lady Constance Emily Ashley-Cooper, third daughter, or "Conty" (29 November 1845 - 16 December 1872[22] or 1871[23] of lung disease [24] )
  9. Lady Edith Florence Ashley-Cooper, fourth daughter (1 February 1847 - 25 November 1913)[25]
  10. Hon. (Anthony) Cecil Ashley-Cooper, sixth son and tenth and youngest child (8 August 1849 - 23 September 1932) [26]; apparently died unmarried.

References

The Earl of Shaftesbury by Carlo Pellegrini, 1869
  1. ^ "thePeerage.com". http://www.thepeerage.com/p2719.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
  2. ^ http://www.islam.ru/pressclub/histori/christ-zionizm/%C2%AB
  3. ^ Shaftsbury as cited in Hyamson, Albert, "British Projects for the Restoration of Jews to Palestine," American Jewish Historical Society, Publications 26, 1918 p. 140
  4. ^ Garfinkle, Adam M., "On the Origin, Meaning, Use and Abuse of a Phrase." Middle Eastern Studies, London, Oct. 1991, vol. 27
  5. ^ Curse of the Shaftsburys, The Independent, 20 May 2005
  6. ^ Transcript from Illustated London News, 1 Jan 1859
  7. ^ Ragged London in 1861 John Hollingshead, London Smith, Elder & Co., 1861
  8. ^ Sir John Kirk blog and p357 Sixty Years in Waifdom C J Montague (1904)
  9. ^ Brigitte Gastel Descendants of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
  10. ^ He was father of the 9th Earl (1869-1961), whose elder son Lord Ashley was father of the ill-fated 10th Earl (1938-2004, murdered by an estranged third wife), father of the 11th Earl (1977-2005) and the 12th Earl (b. 1979). Ironically, despite the 7th Earl's six sons, only the eldest son's heirs male survive to the present, in the person of the 12th Earl, last of his line. Other lines, including that of the reformer Lord Shaftesbury's four brothers, have all died out by 1986 (the death, without sons, of the Hon. John Ashley-Cooper, younger son of the 9th Earl).
  11. ^ Geoffrey B. A M. Finlayson. The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885 Published by Regent College Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1573833142, 9781573833141 640 pages. P. 501 in particular refers to the future 8th Earl's debts, but there are other references. P. 500 refers to the birth of the future 9th Earl in 1869.
  12. ^ Finlayson. The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885 p. 94
  13. ^ Ibid p. 622 index
  14. ^ Brigitte Gastel Descendants of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough< provides full details, including full Christian names, dates of birth and death, places etc. Retrieved 8 December 2008
  15. ^ Brigitte Gastel for full dates. Also see less detail in Finlayson p. 130
  16. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see Finlayson p. 130
  17. ^ Lord Templemore's heir male and descendant is the present Marquess of Donegall; his father inheriting that title in 1975.
  18. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see Finlayson p. 130
  19. ^ Ibid p. 622 index
  20. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see Finlayson p. 196. According to Finlayson, Countess Emily nearly suffered a miscarriage, and did indeed have a miscarriage in 1843.
  21. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see [1]Ibid] p. 427. However, p. 504 gives a different date 1860.
  22. ^ Brigitte Gastel.
  23. ^ Finlayson p. 621 index
  24. ^ [2]Ibid] p. 504
  25. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see Finlayson p. 621 index
  26. ^ Brigitte Gastel. Also see Finlayson p. 621 index

See also

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
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James Langston		 Member of Parliament for Woodstock
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The Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill
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Henry Sturt		 Member of Parliament for Dorchester
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Henry Ashley-Cooper
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Peerage of England
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
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