Ashlea earl biography

From Sir Lesley Stephen & Sir Sidney Lee (eds.), Dictionary of National Biography: from the earliest times to 1900 (London, Oxford University Press, 1949). Added by Marjie Bloy, Senior Research Fellow, National University of Singapore

nthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, philanthropist, was the eldest son of the sixth earl, and of Anne, fourth daughter of the third Duke of Marlborough.

He was born on 28 April 1801 at 24 Grosvenor Square, London, his father being then a younger brother of the family, but when his father succeeded to the title and estates in 1811 his home was at St. Giles in Dorsetshire, the family seat. He was educated at Harrow, and at Christ Church, Oxford, and obtained a first class in classics in 1822.

In 1832 he took his degree of M.A., and in 1841 he was made D.C.L.

He entered parliament as Lord Ashley in 1826 as member for Woodstock, the pocket borough of the Marlborough family, and gave a general support to the governments of Liverpool and Can