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Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (28 April 1801 – 1 October 1885), styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was a British Tory politician, philanthropist, and
social reform Reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject t ...
er. He was the eldest son of the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Anne Spencer (daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough), and elder brother of Henry Ashley, MP. A social reformer who was called the "Poor Man's Earl", he campaigned for better working conditions, reform to lunacy laws, education and the limitation of child labour. He was also an early supporter of the
Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
movement and the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
and a leading figure in the evangelical movement in the Church of England.


Early life

Lord Ashley, as he was styled until his father's death in 1851, was educated at Manor House school in
Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...
, London (1812–1813),
Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...
(1813–1816) and
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...
, where he gained first-class honours in classics in 1822, took his MA in 1832 and was appointed DCL in 1841. Whilst at Oxford, he joined the Apollo University Lodge. Ashley's early family life was loveless, a circumstance common among the British upper classes. G. F. A. Best, in his biography ''Shaftesbury'', writes that "Ashley grew up without any experience of parental love. He saw little of his parents, and when duty or necessity compelled them to take notice of him they were formal and frightening." Even as an adult, he disliked his father and was known to refer to his mother as "a devil". This difficult childhood was softened by the affection he received from the family housekeeper Maria Millis, and his sisters. Millis provided for Ashley a model of Christian love that would form the basis for much of his later social activism and philanthropic work, as Best explains: "What did touch him was the reality, and the homely practicality, of the love which her Christianity made her feel towards the unhappy child. She told him bible stories, she taught him a prayer." Despite this powerful reprieve, school became another source of misery for the young Ashley, whose education at Manor House from 1808 to 1813 introduced a "more disgusting range of horrors". Shaftesbury himself shuddered to recall those years: "The place was bad, wicked, filthy; and the treatment was starvation and cruelty." By his teenage years Ashley had become a committed Christian, and whilst at Harrow he had two experiences which influenced his later life. "Once, at the foot of Harrow Hill, he was the horrified witness of a pauper's funeral. The drunken pallbearers, stumbling along with a crudely-made coffin and shouting snatches of bawdy songs, brought home to him the existence of a whole empire of callousness which put his own childhood miseries in their context. The second incident was his unusual choice of a subject for a Latin poem. In the school grounds, there was an unsavoury mosquito-breeding pond called the Duck Puddle. He chose it as his subject because he was urgently concerned that the school authorities should do something about it, and this appeared to be the simplest way of bringing it to their attention. Soon afterwards the Duck Puddle was inspected, condemned and filled in. This little triumph was a useful fillip to his self-confidence, but it was more than that. It was a foretaste of his skill in getting people to act decisively in face of sloth or immediate self-interest. This was to prove one of his greatest assets in Parliament."


Political career

Ashley was elected as the
Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
Member of Parliament for
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(at that time a
pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act of 1832, which had a very small electo ...
controlled by the Duke of Marlborough) in June 1826 and was a strong supporter of the
Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...
. After
George Canning George Canning (; 11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as foreign secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the U ...
replaced
Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. Before becoming Prime Minister he had been Foreign Secretary, ...
as Prime Minister, he offered Ashley a place in the new government, despite Ashley having been in the Commons for only five months. Ashley politely declined, writing in his diary that he believed that serving under Canning would be a betrayal of his allegiance to the Duke of Wellington and that he was not qualified for office. Before he had completed one year in the Commons, he had been appointed to three parliamentary committees and he received his fourth such appointment in June 1827, when he was appointed to the Select Committee on Pauper Lunatics in the County of Middlesex and on Lunatic Asylums.


Reform of the Lunacy laws

In 1827, when Ashley-Cooper was appointed to the Select Committee on Pauper Lunatics in the County of Middlesex and on Lunatic Asylums, the majority of lunatics in London were kept in madhouses owned by Dr Warburton. The Committee examined many witnesses concerning one of his madhouses in
Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common la ...
, called the White House. Ashley visited this on the committee's behalf. The patients were chained up, slept naked on straw, and excreted in their beds. They were left chained from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning when they were cleared of the accumulated excrement. They were then washed down in freezing cold water and one towel was allotted to 160 people, with no soap. It was overcrowded, and the meat provided was "that nasty thick hard muscle a dog could not eat". The White House had been described as "a mere place for dying" rather than curing the insane and when the Committee asked Dr MacMichael whether he believed that "in the lunatic asylums in the neighbourhood of London any curative process is going on with regard to pauper patients", he replied: "None at all". The Committee recommended that "legislative measures of a remedial character should be introduced at the earliest period at the next session", and the establishment of a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Home Secretary possessing extensive powers of licensing, inspection and control. When in February 1828 Robert Gordon, Liberal MP for Cricklade, introduced a bill to put these recommendations into law, Ashley seconded this and delivered his maiden speech in support of the Bill. He wrote in his diary: "So, by God's blessing, my first effort has been for the advance of human happiness. May I improve hourly! Fright almost deprived me of recollection but again thank Heaven, I did not sit down quite a presumptuous idiot". Ashley was also involved in framing the County Lunatic Asylums (England) Act 1828 and the Madhouses Act 1828. Through these Acts, fifteen commissioners were appointed for the London area and given extensive powers of licensing and inspection, one of the commissioners being Ashley. In July 1845, Ashley sponsored two Lunacy Acts, 'For the Regulation of lunatic Asylums' and 'For the better Care and Treatment of Lunatics in England and Wales'. They originated in the Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy which he had commended to Parliament the year before. These Acts consolidated and amended previous lunacy laws, providing better record keeping and more strict certification regulations to ensure patients against unwarranted detention. They also ordered, instead of merely permitting, the construction of country lunatic asylums and establishing an ongoing Lunacy Commission with Ashley as its chairman. In support of these measures, Ashley gave a speech in which he claimed that although since 1828 there had been an improvement, more still needed to be done. He cited the case of a Welsh lunatic girl, Mary Jones, who had for more than a decade been locked in a tiny loft with one boarded-up window with little air and no light. The room was extremely filthy and filled with an intolerable smell. She could only squat in a bent position in the room and this had caused her to become deformed. In early 1858, a Select Committee was appointed over concerns that sane persons were detained in lunatic asylums. Lord Shaftesbury (as Ashley had become upon his father's death in 1851) was the chief witness and opposed the suggestion that the certification of insanity be made more difficult and that early treatment of insanity was essential if there was to be any prospect of a cure. He claimed that only one or two people in his time dealing with lunacy had been detained in an asylum without sufficient grounds and that commissioners should be granted more not fewer powers. The committee's Report endorsed all of Shaftesbury's recommendations except for one: that a magistrate's signature on a certificate of lunacy be made compulsory. This was not put into law chiefly due to Shaftesbury's opposition to it. The Report also agreed with Shaftesbury that unwarranted detentions were "extremely rare". In July 1877, Shaftesbury gave evidence before the Select Committee on the Lunacy Laws, which had been appointed in February over concerns that it was too easy for sane persons to be detained in asylums. Shaftesbury feared that because of his advanced age he would be taken over by forgetfulness whilst giving evidence and was greatly stressed in the months leading up to this: "Shall fifty years of toil, anxiety and prayer, crowned by marvellous and unlooked-for success, bring me in the end only sorrow and disgrace?" When "the hour of trial" arrived Shaftesbury defended the Lunacy Commission and claimed he was now the only person alive who could speak with personal knowledge of the state of care of lunatics before the Lunacy Commission was established in 1828. It had been "a state of things such as would pass all belief". In the committee's Report, the members of the Committee agreed with Shaftesbury's evidence on all points. In 1884, the husband of Mrs Georgina Weldon tried to have her detained in a lunatic asylum because she believed that her pug dog had a soul and that the spirit of her dead mother had entered into her pet rabbit. She commenced legal action against Shaftesbury and other lunacy commissioners although it failed. In May, Shaftesbury spoke in the Lords against a motion declaring the lunacy laws unsatisfactory but the motion passed Parliament. The Lord Chancellor Selborne supported a Lunacy Law Amendment Bill and Shaftesbury wanted to resign from the Lunacy Commission as he believed he was honour bound not to oppose a Bill supported by the Lord Chancellor. However, Selborne implored him not to resign so Shaftesbury refrained. However, when the Bill was introduced and it contained the provision which made it compulsory for a certificate of lunacy to be signed by a magistrate or a judge, he resigned. The government fell, however, and the Bill was withdrawn and Shaftesbury resumed his chairmanship of the Lunacy Commission. Shaftesbury's work in improving the care of the insane remains one of his most important, though lesser known, achievements. He wrote: "Beyond the circle of my own Commissioners and the lunatics that I visit, not a soul, in great or small life, not even my associates in my works of philanthropy, has any notion of the years of toil and care that, under God, I have bestowed on this melancholy and awful question".


Child labour

In March 1833, Ashley introduced the Ten Hours Act 1833 into the Commons, which provided that children working in the cotton and woollen industries must be aged nine or above; no person under the age of eighteen was to work more than ten hours a day or eight hours on a Saturday; and no one under twenty-five was to work nights, insisted they should go to school, and appointed inspectors to enforce the law. However the Whig government, by a majority of 145, amended this to substitute "thirteen" in place of "eighteen" and the Act as it passed ensured that no child under thirteen worked more than nine hours. In June 1836, another Ten Hours act was introduced into the Commons and although Ashley considered this Bill ill-timed, he supported it. In July one member of the Lancashire committees set up to support the Bill wrote that: "If there was one man in England more devoted to the interests of the factory people than another, it was Lord Ashley. They might always rely on him as a ready, steadfast and willing friend". In July 1837, he accused the government of ignoring the breaches of the 1833 Act and moved the resolution that the House regretted the regulation of the working hours of children had been found to be unsatisfactory. It was lost by fifteen votes. The text of ''A Narrative of the Experience and Sufferings of William Dodd a Factory Cripple'' was sent to Lord Ashley and with his support was published in 1840. Ashley employed William Dodd at 45 shillings a week, and he wrote ''The Factory System: Illustrated'' to describe the conditions of working children in textile manufacture. This was published in 1842. These books were attacked by
John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...
in parliament who said that he had evidence that the books described Dodd's mistreatment but were in fact driven by Dodd's ingratitude as a disgruntled employee. Ashley sacked Dodd who emigrated to America. In 1842, Ashley wrote twice to the Prime Minister,
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
, to urge the government to support a new Factory Act. Peel wrote in reply that he would not support one, and Ashley wrote to the Short Time Committees of Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire who desired a Ten Hours Act: In March 1844, Ashley moved an amendment to a Factory Bill limiting the working hours of adolescents to ten hours after Sir James Graham had introduced a Bill aiming to limit their working hours to twelve hours. Ashley's amendment was passed by eight votes, the first time the Commons had approved of the Ten Hour principle. However, in a later vote, his amendment was defeated by seven votes and the Bill was withdrawn. Later that month, Graham introduced another Bill which again would limit the employment of adolescents to twelve hours. Ashley supported this Bill except that he wanted ten hours not twelve as the limit. In May he moved an amendment to limit the hours worked to ten hours but this was lost by 138 votes. In 1846, whilst he was out of Parliament, Ashley strongly supported
John Fielden John Fielden (17 January 1784 – 29 May 1849) was a British industrialist and Radicals (UK), Radical Member of Parliament for Oldham (UK Parliament constituency), Oldham (1832–1847). He entered Parliament to support William Cobbett, whose ...
's Ten Hours Bill, which was lost by ten votes. In January 1847, Fielden reintroduced his Bill and it finally passed through Parliament to become the Ten Hours Act.


Miners

Ashley introduced the Mines and Collieries Act 1842 in Parliament to outlaw the employment of women and children underground in
coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
s. He made a speech in support of the Act and the
Prince Consort A prince consort is the husband of a monarch who is not a monarch in his own right. In recognition of his status, a prince consort may be given a formal title, such as ''prince''. Most monarchies do not allow the husband of a queen regnant to be ...
wrote to him afterwards, sending him the "best wishes for your ''total'' success". At the end of his speech, his opponent on the Ten Hours issue, Richard Cobden, walked over to Ashley and said: "You know how opposed I have been to your views, but I don't think I have ever been put into such a frame of mind in the whole course of my life as I have been by your speech."


Climbing boys

Ashley was a strong supporter of prohibiting the employment of boys as chimney sweeps. Many climbing boys were illegitimate who had been sold by their parents. They had scorched and lacerated skin, their eyes and throats filled with soot, with the danger of suffocation and their occupational disease— cancer of the scrotum. In 1840, a Bill was introduced into the Commons outlawing the employment of boys as chimney sweeps, and strongly supported by Ashley. Despite being enforced in London, elsewhere the Act did not stop the employment of child chimney sweeps and this led to the foundation of the Climbing-Boys' Society with Ashley as its chairman. In 1851, 1853 and 1855, Shaftesbury introduced Bills into Parliament to deal with the ongoing use of boy chimney sweeps but these were all defeated. He succeeded in passing the Chimney Sweepers Regulation Act 1864 but, like its predecessors, it remained ineffectual. Shaftesbury finally persuaded Parliament to pass the Chimney Sweepers Act 1875 which ensured the annual licensing of chimney sweeps and the enforcement of the law by the police. This finally eradicated the employment of boys as chimney sweeps. After Shaftesbury discovered that a boy chimney sweep was living behind his house in Brock Street, London, he rescued the child and sent him to "the Union School at Norwood Hill, where, under God's blessing and special merciful grace, he will be trained in the knowledge and love and faith of our common Saviour".


Education reform

In 1844, Ashley became president of the Ragged School Union that promoted ragged schools. These schools were for poor children and sprang up from volunteers. Ashley wrote that "If the Ragged School system were to fail I should not die in the course of nature, I should die of a broken heart".


Housing reform

In 1851 two acts were passed at Shaftesbury's insistence concerning lodging houses. This marked, according to one study, "the first attempt of the legislature to grapple with the question of unhealthy dwellings." The Common Lodging Houses Act 1851, which
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
described as 'the best measure ever passed in Parliament,' provided for all such lodging houses to be registered and "that no lodgers were to be kept until the houses had been inspected and opened by an officer of the local authority." In addition, local authorities were given the power to make regulations for common-lodging houses and exact penalties for regulation breaches. Regular cleansing and whitewashing were enforced while it was rendered compulsory "for the keeper of a lodging-house to give immediate notice of any case of fever or infectious disease in the house to the local authority, to the Poor Law medical officer and the relieving officer." The Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Act 1851 "empowered borough councils and local boards to erect lodging-houses or to purchase existing lodging-houses, and to manage them, making by-laws for charges, management, etc. Such lodging-houses were under the inspection of the local boards of health."


Animal welfare

Shaftesbury advocated for animal welfare and was president of the Victoria Street Society for the Protection of Animals from Vivisection. He was also a vice-president of the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales which promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest a ...
. He argued for total abolition of
vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...
, not reform. In 1879, he delivered a speech condemning the practice of vivisection and questioned why vivisectionists were subjecting "God's creatures to such unspeakable sufferings?".


Religious restoration


Zionist movement

Shaftesbury was a pre-millennial evangelical Anglican who believed in the imminent second coming of Christ. His belief underscored the urgency of immediate action. He strongly opposed
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
ritualism among High Church Anglicans. He also disapproved of the Catholic features of the
Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...
in the Church of England. He denounced the Maynooth College Act 1845, which funded the Catholic seminary in Ireland that would train many priests. However, disagreeing with his father, he favored Catholic Emancipation. Shaftesbury was a leading figure within 19th-century
evangelical Anglicanism Evangelical Anglicanism or Evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or Churchmanship, church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "co ...
. Shaftesbury was President of the
British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...
(BFBS) from 1851 until his death in 1885. He wrote, of the Bible Society, "Of all Societies, this is nearest to my heart... Bible Society has always been a watchword in our house." He was also president of the Evangelical Alliance for some time. Shaftesbury was also a student of Edward Bickersteth and the two men became prominent advocates of
Christian Zionism Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in a Christianity and Judaism, Christian context, espouses the return of the Jews, Jewish people to the Holy Land. Likewise, it holds that the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 ...
in Britain. Shaftesbury was an early proponent of the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land, providing the first proposal by a major politician to resettle Jews in Palestine. The conquest of the region of Syria in 1831 by
Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Albanians, Albanian viceroy and governor who became the ''de facto'' ruler of History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty, Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely consi ...
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, James Finn, 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 Britain would gain from this and because he believed that it was God's will. In January 1839, Shaftesbury published an article in the ''
Quarterly Review The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967. It was referred to as ''The London Quarterly Review'', as reprinted by Leonard Scott, f ...
'', which although initially commenting on the 1838 ''Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land (1838)'' by Lord Lindsay, provided the first proposal by a major politician to resettle Jews in Palestine: In 1848, Shaftesbury became president of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, of which Finn was a prominent member. The lead-up to the
Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
(1854), like the military expansionism of Muhammad Ali two decades earlier, signalled an opening for realignments in the Near East. In July 1853, Shaftesbury wrote to the Prime Minister, Lord 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 "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 "A land without a people for a people without a land" is a widely cited phrase associated with the movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine (region), Palestine. Its historicity and significance are a matter of contention. Although ...
" by which Shaftesbury was echoing another British proponent of the restoration of the Jews to
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
, Dr Alexander Keith.


Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade

Shaftesbury served as the first president of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade: a lobbying group dedicated to the abolition of the opium trade. The Society was formed by
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
businessmen in 1874, and Shaftesbury was president from 1880 until his death. The Society's efforts eventually led to the creation of the investigative Royal Commission on Opium.


Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in
Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...
, London, erected in 1893, was designed to commemorate his philanthropic works. The fountain is crowned by
Alfred Gilbert Sir Alfred Gilbert (12 August 18544 November 1934) was an English sculpture, sculptor. He was born in London and studied sculpture under Joseph Boehm, Matthew Noble, Édouard Lantéri and Pierre-Jules Cavelier. His first work of importance wa ...
'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 Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...
''. It appears on the masthead of the ''
Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
''.


Veneration

Lord Shaftesbury was a member of the
Canterbury Association The Canterbury Association was formed in 1848 in England by Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), members of parliament, Peerage of the United Kingdom, peers, and Anglicanism, Anglican church leaders, to establish a colony in New Zealand. The se ...
, as were two of Wilberforce's sons,
Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...
and
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...
. Lord Ashley joined on 27 March 1848. Anthony Ashley Cooper is remembered in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
with a
commemoration Commemoration may refer to: *Commemoration (Anglicanism), a religious observance in Churches of the Anglican Communion *Commemoration (liturgy), insertion in one liturgy of portions of another *Memorialization *"Commemoration", a song by the 3rd a ...
on 1 October.


Family

Lord Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, married Lady Emily Caroline Catherine Frances Cowper (died 15 October 1872), daughter of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper and Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper; Emily is likely in fact to have been the natural daughter of
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
(later her official stepfather), on 10 June 1830. This marriage, which proved a happy and fruitful one, produced ten children. It also provided invaluable political connections for Ashley; his wife's maternal uncle was
Lord Melbourne Henry William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 177924 November 1848) was a British Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first premiership ended when he was dismissed ...
and her stepfather (and supposed biological father)
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
, both prime ministers. The children, who mostly had various degrees of ill-health, were: # Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (27 June 1831 – 13 April 1886), ancestor of all subsequent earls. He proved to be a disappointing heir apparent, constantly running up debts with his extravagant wife Harriet, born Lady Harriet Chichester. #(Anthony) Francis Henry Ashley-Cooper, second son (b. 13 March 1833 – 13 May 1849) #(Anthony) Maurice William Ashley-Cooper, third son (22 July 1835 – 19 August 1855), died aged 20, after several years of illness. # (Anthony) Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (24 July 1836 – 15 November 1907), married firstly 28 July 1866 Sybella Charlotte Farquhar ( – 31 August 1886), daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar, 3rd Baronet by his wife Lady Mary Octavia Somerset, a daughter of the
Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd D ...
and had one son Wilfred William Ashley, and one daughter. His granddaughter was Edwina Ashley, later Lady Mountbatten (1901–1960), who had two daughters Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924-2017) and
Lady Pamela Hicks Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks (''née'' Mountbatten; born 19 April 1929) is a British nobility, British aristocrat and relative of the British royal family. She is the younger daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (form ...
(b. 1929). Evelyn Ashley left several other descendants via his daughter and Edwina's younger sister. Evelyn Ashley married 2ndly 30 June 1891 Lady Alice Elizabeth Cole (4 February 1853 – 25 August 1931), daughter of William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen by his first wife Jane Casamajor, no issue. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley died on 15 November 1907. #Lady Victoria Elizabeth Ashley, later Lady Templemore (23 September 1837 – 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. #(Anthony) Lionel George Ashley-Cooper (b. 7 September 1838 – 1914). He married 12 December 1868 Frances Elizabeth Leigh "Fanny (d. 12 August 1875), daughter of Capel Hanbury Leigh; apparently had no issue. #Lady Mary Charlotte Ashley-Cooper, second daughter (25 July 1842 – 3 September 1861). #Lady Constance Emily Ashley-Cooper, third daughter, or "Conty" (29 November 1845 – 16 December 1872 or 1871 of lung disease). #Lady Edith Florence Ashley-Cooper, fourth daughter (1 February 1847 – 25 November 1913) #(Anthony) Cecil Ashley-Cooper, sixth son and tenth and youngest child (8 August 1849 – 23 September 1932); apparently died unmarried.


Legacy

Although he was offered a burial at Westminster Abbey, Shaftesbury wished to be buried at St. Giles.
George Williams (YMCA) Sir George Williams (11 October 1821 – 6 November 1905) was an English philanthropist, businessman and founder of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The oldest and largest youth charity in the world, its aim is to support young p ...
chaired the organising committee of his funeral, and was a pall-bearer at it. A funeral service was held in Westminster Abbey during the early morning of 8 October and the streets along the route from
Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square ( ) is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, Greater London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was deve ...
and
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
were thronged with poor people, costermongers, flower-girls, boot-blacks, crossing-sweepers, factory-hands and similar workers who waited for hours to see Shaftesbury's coffin as it passed by. Due to his constant advocacy for the better treatment of the working classes, Shaftesbury became known as the "Poor Man's Earl". A white marble statue commemorates Shaftesbury near the west door of Westminster Abbey. One of his biographers, Georgina Battiscombe, has claimed that "No man has in fact ever done more to lessen the extent of human misery or to add to the sum total of human happiness". Three days after his death,
Charles Spurgeon Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31st January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers." ...
eulogised him, saying:


See also

*
London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) (formerly the London Jews' Society and the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews) is an Anglican Missionary, missionary society founded in 1809. History The society began in the ...
– Shaftesbury was president of the society. *
A land without a people for a people without a land "A land without a people for a people without a land" is a widely cited phrase associated with the movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine (region), Palestine. Its historicity and significance are a matter of contention. Although ...
*
Christian Zionism Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in a Christianity and Judaism, Christian context, espouses the return of the Jews, Jewish people to the Holy Land. Likewise, it holds that the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 ...
*
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
- Shaftesbury served as YMCA's first president from 1851 until his death in 1885.


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

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Volume2Volume 3


External links

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl Of 1801 births 1885 deaths 19th-century Anglicans 19th-century English politicians 19th-century evangelicals Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Anglican saints British Christian Zionists British reformers British social reformers Commissioners in Lunacy Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 7 English Anglicans English evangelicals 19th-century English philanthropists Evangelical Anglicans History of mental health in the United Kingdom Knights of the Garter Lord-lieutenants of Dorset Lords of the Admiralty Members of the Canterbury Association Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies People associated with the Royal National College for the Blind People educated at Harrow School Politics of Bath, Somerset Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society Tory MPs (pre-1834) UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 UK MPs 1847–1852 Shaftesbury, E7 YMCA leaders Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dorchester Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dorset