Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (21 May 1736 – 8 March 1803), known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman from the
Egerton family
The Egerton family (pronunciation: "''edge-er-ton''") is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Egerton family were made Dukes, Earls, knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Egerton family include t ...
. He was the youngest son of the 1st Duke. He did not marry, and the
dukedom
Dukedom may refer to:
* The title and office of a duke
* Duchy, the territory ruled by a duke
* Dukedom, Kentucky and Tennessee
Dukedom is an unincorporated community in both Graves County, Kentucky and Weakley County, Tennessee, straddling th ...
expired with him, although the earldom was inherited by a cousin,
Lieutenant-General John Egerton.
A pioneer of canal construction, he is famed as the "father of British inland navigation", who commissioned the
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...
—often said to be the first true
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
in Britain, and the modern world. The canal was built for him by his agent
John Gilbert with advice from
James Brindley
James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born i ...
to service his
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
s at
Worsley
Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there is evi ...
, in Lancashire.
Life
Bridgewater, the younger son of
Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, was born on 21 May 1736. Upon the death of their father in 1745, his elder brother inherited the title to become
John Egerton, 2nd Duke of Bridgewater
John Egerton, 2nd Duke of Bridgwater (29 April 1727 – 26 February 1748), known as Lord John Egerton until 1731 and as Marquess of Brackley from 1731 to 1745, was a British peer from the Egerton family. He was also known as the 5th Earl of Br ...
. He died only three years later, and Francis succeeded to the dukedom at the age of twelve, becoming 3rd Duke of Bridgewater and 6th Earl of Bridgewater.
As a child Francis was sickly and of such unpromising intellectual capacity that at one time the idea of cutting the
entail
In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...
was seriously entertained by his mother. Despite this, after some education, Francis began to exhibit business acumen and developed several business interests in
North-West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
.
Shortly after attaining his majority he became engaged to the society beauty the
Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, but her refusal to give up the acquaintance of her sister,
Lady Coventry, led to the breaking off of the match. Thereupon the Duke broke up his London establishment, and retired to his estate at
Worsley
Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there is evi ...
where he devoted himself to the making of
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
s.
Canals
The
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...
from Worsley to Manchester which he constructed to transport coal obtained on his estates is usually cited as the first modern British canal as opposed to a river navigation—although the
Sankey Canal
The Sankey Canal in North West England, initially known as the Sankey Brook Navigation and later the St Helens Canal, is a former industrial canal, which when opened in 1757 was England's first of the Industrial revolution, and the first moder ...
is a rival to this claim, projected as a "navigation", but built as a true canal. The construction of Bridgewater's canal, with its aqueduct across the
River Irwell, was carried out by
James Brindley
James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born i ...
, the celebrated
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
.
The completion of his first canal led the duke to undertake a more ambitious work. In 1762 he obtained parliamentary powers to provide an improved waterway between
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
by means of a canal. The difficulties encountered in its execution were still more formidable than those of the Worsley canal, involving carrying it across Sale Moor Moss. But the genius of John Gilbert, his agent and Brindley, his engineer, proved superior to all obstacles although at one period the duke's financial resources were almost exhausted, the work was carried to a triumphant conclusion.
Both canals were completed by the time Bridgewater was thirty-six years of age, and the remainder of his life was spent in extending them and in improving his estates. During the latter years of his life he derived a princely income from the success of his enterprise. Although a supporter of
Pitt's administration, he took no prominent part in politics.
Wealth
![Memorial to Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Memorial_to_Francis_Egerton%2C_3rd_Duke_of_Bridgewater.jpg)
The duke accumulated great wealth through his canal and coal interests. His annual income was said to have exceeded £80,000. The family owned other estates: Belton House, a small
Sussex estate and the Old House and, 6,000 acres (24 km
2) at
Ashridge. On leaving his Brackley and Worsley estates, the duke had an annual income in taxes and duties of £75,000 (estimated in 1997 as £2,360,000). The father of the first duke had bought Cleveland House in St James, London, which was rebuilt to the designs of Sir Charles Barry in 1840 and renamed Bridgewater House in 1854 for Lord Ellesmere, heir of the 3rd Duke.
With the Bridgewater fortune exceeding £2,000,000, the duke, the richest nobleman in England, set about rebuilding Ashridge. He began to pull the old buildings down, but he died before his plans could be completed, leaving his heir with nothing but rubble. He was the leading member of the syndicate which purchased and partly resold the famous
Orleans Collection
The Orleans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723. Apart from the great royal-become-national collections of Euro ...
, from the banker
Jeremiah Harman in 1789.
He acquired an art collection valued at £150,000 (estimated in 1997 about £4.75 million). It was composed of several
paintings including ''
Diana and Actaeon
The myth of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s ''Metamorphoses''. The tale recounts the unfortunate fate of a young hunter named Actaeon, who was a grandson of Cadmus, and his encounter with chaste Artemis, known to the Romans as Diana ...
'' and ''
Diana and Callisto
''Diana and Callisto'' is a painting completed between 1556 and 1559 by the Italian late Renaissance artist Titian. It portrays the moment in which the goddess Diana discovers that her maid Callisto has become pregnant by Jupiter. The paintin ...
''. It was inherited by his heir, 1st Duke of Sutherland. Most of his purchases are still held by the Egerton family.
Legacy and memorials
The duke died unmarried on 8 March 1803, and the ducal title became extinct although the
Earldom of Bridgewater passed to a cousin, Lieutenant-General John Egerton, who became 7th Earl). The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater was buried in the
Egerton family
The Egerton family (pronunciation: "''edge-er-ton''") is a British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Egerton family were made Dukes, Earls, knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Egerton family include t ...
vault in the Church of St Peter and St Paul in
Little Gaddesden
Little Gaddesden (pronounced ) is a village and civil parish in the borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire north of Berkhamsted. As well as Little Gaddesden village (population 694), the parish contains the settlements of Ashridge (population 53), H ...
, close to Ashridge.
By his will the duke devised his canals and estates on trust, under which his nephew, the
2nd Marquess of Stafford (afterwards 1st Duke of Sutherland), became the first beneficiary, and next his son
Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (afterwards 1st Earl of Ellesmere) and his issue. In order that the trust should last as long as possible, an extraordinary use was made of the legal rule that property may be settled for the duration of lives in being and twenty-one years after. The legatees were a great number of persons connected with the duke and their living issue, plus all peers who had taken their seats in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
on or before the duke's decease. The last of the peers died in 1857, but one of the commoners survived till 19 October 1883, and so the trust did not expire until 19 October 1903, when the whole property passed to the undivided control of
Francis Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere
Francis Charles Granville Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere VD, DL, JP (5 April 1847 – 13 July 1914),''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage,'' 100th Edn, London, 1953. styled Viscount Brackley between 1857 and 1862, was a British peer, ...
. The canals had by then been transferred to the Bridgewater Navigation Company in 1872, by whom they were sold in 1887 to the
Manchester Ship Canal Company
The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the rive ...
.
The duke is commemorated in a number of locations around Britain. A marble wall monument in Little Gaddesden Church is dedicated to his memory, and on the nearby Ashridge Estate, the
Bridgewater Monument
Ashridge is a country estate and stately home in Hertfordshire, England in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about north of Berkhamsted and north west of London. The estate com ...
was erected in 1832 'in honour of Francis, Third duke of Bridgewater, "Father of Inland Navigation"'. The
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...
in
North West England, still in existence today, bears the Duke's name.
In the 1830s, the possibility was discussed of raising a memorial to the Canal Duke in Manchester, but at the time public statuary was relatively unknown outside London. Illustrations exist of unrealised 1836 proposal by
William Fairbairn
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third pre ...
to build a ''Bridgewater Crescent'' at the eastern end of
Piccadilly in Manchester, to be adorned with a statue of the Duke of Bridgewater. To date, no statue has been erected in Manchester to commemorate the Canal Duke.
A 1788 portrait drawing of the Duke of Bridgewater by
William Marshall Craig
William Marshall Craig (died 1827) was an English painter who exhibited at times at the Royal Academy, from 1788 until 1827.
Craig first lived at Manchester, but settled in London about 1791. He was painter in water-colours to the Queen, and mi ...
was engraved by
Edward Scriven in 1835; prints are held in the
National Portrait Gallery, London and the
Scottish National Gallery
The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...
in Edinburgh.
Two
Wax medallion portraits of the Duke by
Peter Rouw dating from 1803 are held at the National Portrait Gallery and at
Tatton Hall
Tatton Hall is a country house in Tatton Park near Knutsford, Cheshire, England. It is designated as a Grade I-listed building and is open to the public.
History
The original manor house in Tatton Park was Tatton Old Hall. Around 1716 ...
in Cheshire.
Francis Egerton is depicted in one of ''
The Manchester Murals
''The Manchester Murals'' are a series of twelve paintings by Ford Madox Brown in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall and are based on the history of Manchester. Following the success of Brown's painting ''Work'' he was commissioned to pai ...
'' painted by
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...
between 1879 and 1893. ''The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal A.D. 1761'' shows the Duke of Bridgewater standing on a barge decorated with flags of his coat of arms, alongside engineer
James Brindley
James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born i ...
, observing the launch of the first coal barges on his new canal.
In 1905,
Francis Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere
Francis Charles Granville Egerton, 3rd Earl of Ellesmere VD, DL, JP (5 April 1847 – 13 July 1914),''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage,'' 100th Edn, London, 1953. styled Viscount Brackley between 1857 and 1862, was a British peer, ...
erected a fountain in
Worsley Green, Salford, in memory of the Duke of Bridgewater, after a former factory built by the duke there was demolished.
In 1996, a new concert hall named after the duke was opened in Manchester, the
Bridgewater Hall — although the hall is actually situated next to the adjoining
Rochdale Canal.
File:Worsley (6526585291).jpg, The Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...
File:Bridgewater Monument from Pitstone Common - geograph.org.uk - 83832.jpg, The Bridgewater Monument
Ashridge is a country estate and stately home in Hertfordshire, England in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about north of Berkhamsted and north west of London. The estate com ...
in Ashridge (1832)
File:BrownManchesterMuralBridgewater.jpg, " The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal A.D. 1761" by Ford Madox Brown in Manchester Town Hall.
File:Worsley Green Fountain (6526448953).jpg, The Worsley
Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, there is evi ...
Green Fountain (1905)
File:Bridgewater Hall 2015 002.jpg, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (1996)
Ancestry
Scroop, 1st Duke of Bridgewater (1681–1745), the son of the 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, was created a duke in 1720. He was the great-grandson of
John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater
John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater KB, PC (1579 – 4 December 1649) was an English peer and politician from the Egerton family.
The son of Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley and Elizabeth Ravenscroft, he matriculated at Brasenose ...
(. 1617; . 1649), whose name is associated with the production of
Milton's ''
Comus
In Greek mythology, Comus (; grc, Κῶμος, ''Kōmos'') is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr and represents ana ...
'' and the latter was the son of
Sir Thomas Egerton
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (1540 – 15 March 1617), known as 1st Baron Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-on ...
(1540–1617),
Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of ...
and
James I's Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
, who was created Baron Ellesmere in 1603 and Viscount Brackley in 1616.
Notes
References
*
*
*
Attribution:
*
External links
Duke of Bridgewater Archive from the University of Salford siteFrancis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of
1736 births
1803 deaths
103
People associated with canals
Burials in Hertfordshire
Francis