Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG, PC ( born January 1, 1800, London, † February 18, 1857 ) was a British politician, writer and art lovers.
Life
The youngest son of George Granville Leveson - Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland was Member of Parliament and supporters of the moderate conservatism. Under the administration Wellington he was from 1829 to 1830 Chief Secretary for Ireland, so the second highest British official in Ireland, then minister of war. Egerton was a partisan of the Tories and an early supporter of economic liberalism. He argued for unrestricted free trade and against workers' rights. In 1846 he was elevated as Earl of Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley in the peer level.
In addition to his political activities, he devoted himself mainly literary, scientific and artistic pursuits. He exhibited inherited from his father collection of Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, French and English art works in the Bridgewater House in St. James 's Park, published a series of geographical essays in the Quarterly Review ( 1834-54 ), wrote several works on art and public buildings and studied the works of the Archaeological Society exactly.
Egerton's most important works are the Guide to Northern Archaeology (1848 ) and several historical works, including a description of the Battle of Waterloo, a biography of Blucher, an analysis of the French and English reports of the Battle of Waterloo and Military Events in Italy in the Years 1848 and 1849 ( 1851). A collection of his poems he published under the title: The Pilgrim Age, and other poems (1856 ). Besides, he gave translations of several foreign, especially German, literati, including, for example, Goethe's Faust and Schiller's Wallenstein.
Egerton was married since 1822 with Harriet Catherine Greville born. The couple had eleven children. Egerton died on February 18, 1857 in Bridgewater House, London.
During his lifetime, named the British polar explorer Edward Inglefield to the Queen Elizabeth Islands belonging Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago - after him.