Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell (1744-1817), improving landlord and author; born in Bath, and educated at TCD and Oxford. In England he was part of a circle of progressives including Humphry Davy and Josiah Wedgwood. Throughout his life he worked on mechanical and engineering problems, constructing a turnip-cutter and a velocipede, as well as devising methods of reclaiming bogs. He returned to Ireland in 1782, settling at the family estate in Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford. Married four times, he had twenty-two children of whom Maria Edgeworth was the eldest daughter. A liberal in politics, he disparaged the Orange Order. As an MP he voted twice against the Union, not because he disagreed with it but because he despised the corrupt methods used to pass it. Interested in education, he collaborated with his daughter in Practical Education (2 vols., 1798) and Essays on Professional Education (1809), as well as the Essay on Irish Bulls (1802). He also wrote an Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages (1813). Maria completed the Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1820) after his death.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth
Richard Edgeworth, 1812
Born	31 May, 1744 Bath, England
Died	13 June, 1817 Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (31 May 1744 – 13 June 1817) was an Anglo-Irish, politician writer and inventor.

Biography

Edgeworth was born in Pierrepont Street, Bath, England, grandson of Sir Salathiel Lovell through his daughter, Jane Lovell.

He was the father of Maria Edgeworth and 21 other children (by his four wives), and grandfather to Francis Ysidro Edgeworth.

A Trinity College, Dublin and Oxford alumnus, he is credited for creating, among other inventions, a machine to measure the size of a plot of land. He also made strides in the developing educational methods. He invented the caterpillar track in 1770.

He lived in Ireland at his estate at Edgeworthstown, County Longford where he reclaimed bogs and improved roads. He sat in Grattan's Parliament for St Johnstown (County Longford) from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801 and advocated Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform. He was a founder-member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died in Edgworthstown on 13 June 1817.

External links

• Works by Richard Lovell Edgeworth at Project Gutenberg
• Edgeworth, Richard Lovell; Maria Edgeworth (1820). The Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. 1. London: Hunter, Cradock & Joy. http://books.google.com/books?id=NKMDAAAAYAAJ. 
• Edgeworth, Richard Lovell; Maria Edgeworth (1821). The Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. 2. London: Hunter, Cradock & Joy. http://books.google.com/books?id=tacDAAAAYAAJ. 

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, 1st Bt Francis Hardy	Member of Parliament for St Johnstown (County Longford) 1798 – 1801 Served alongside: William Moore	Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom

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