Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury

The Right Honourable The Earl of Shaftesbury Bt DL
Predecessor	The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Successor	The 9th Earl of Shaftesbury
Born	Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1831-06-27)27 June 1831 England
Died	13 April 1886(1886-04-13) (aged 54) Regent Street, Westminster
Cause of death	Suicide by revolver
Nationality	English
Spouse(s)	Lady Harriet Chichester
Issue	Six children (five girls and one boy)

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury Bt DL (27 June 1831 – 13 April 1886), styled Lord Ashley between 1851 and 1885, was a British peer. He was the son of The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

Career

He was commissioned a cornet in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry on 26 July 1856[1] and was promoted Lieutenant on 21 January 1857.[2] On 27 January 1857, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Dorset.[3] He resigned his Yeomanry commission in April 1859.[4] He was Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull from 1857 to 1859[5] and Cricklade from 1859 to 1865.[6] He was a patron and member of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.[7]

On 7 June 1858, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Antrim Royal Rifle Regiment of Militia.[8] On 16 March 1860, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 2nd (South Middlesex) Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC).[9] He resigned his commission in the South Middlesex on 6 September 1860 to become a Captain in the 28th (London Irish) Middlesex RVC on 17 September.[10][11]

On 7 September 1860, he was promoted to a captaincy in the Antrim Militia,[12] which he resigned in early 1862.[13] He resigned his commission in the London Irish Rifles on 1 April 1863.[14] On 6 February 1862, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the Dorset Militia,[15] a position he held until 1 June 1872.[16]

On 12 May 1875, he was appointed Lieutenant-commanding of the London Corps of Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers (RNAV),[17] and on 7 June 1880, he became honorary commander of the London Brigade, RNAV.[18]

Family

Lord Shaftesbury married Lady Harriet Augusta Anna Seymourina Chichester (d. 14 April 1898), only daughter (and only surviving child) of the 3rd Marquess of Donegall, on 22 August 1857. They had six children:

• Lady Margaret Ashley-Cooper (1858–1931), married Captain Theophilus Levett, son of Theophilus John Levett MP.
• Lady Evelyn Ashley-Cooper (1865–1931), married firstly the 2nd Baron Magheramorne, and secondly Captain Hugo Baring (sixth son of the 1st Baron Revelstoke)
• Lady Mildred Ashley-Cooper (1867–1958), married George Allsopp.
• Lady Violet Ashley-Cooper (1868–1938), married the 12th Earl of Mar.
• Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury (1869–1961), married Lady Constance Grosvenor, elder daughter of Earl Grosvenor, eldest son of the 1st Duke of Westminster.
• Lady Ethel Maud Ashley-Cooper (1870–1945), married Sir George Warrender – she was known as Lady Maud Warrender, a singer and patron of music, and a personal friend of the composer Sir Edward Elgar and his wife.

In his father's lifetime, as Lord Ashley, he was a disappointing heir apparent, constantly running up debts with his extravagant wife.[19]

Death

Lord Shaftesbury committed suicide, on 13 April 1886, six months after succeeding to the title. He shot himself with a revolver while in a cab in Regent Street, London.[20]

References

1. "No. 21910". The London Gazette. 5 August 1856. p. 2712.
2. "No. 21962". The London Gazette. 27 January 1857. p. 278.
3. "No. 21968". The London Gazette. 17 February 1857. p. 540.
4. "No. 22253". The London Gazette. 22 April 1859. p. 1663.
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
6. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)
7. Kathleen L. Lodwick (1996). Crusaders Against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China, 1874–1917. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 55–66. ISBN 978-0-8131-1924-3.
8. "No. 6821". The Edinburgh Gazette. 9 July 1858. p. 1295.
9. "No. 22369". The London Gazette. 23 March 1860. p. 1174.
10. "No. 22422". The London Gazette. 14 September 1860. p. 3370.
11. "No. 22431". The London Gazette. 5 October 1860. p. 3590.
12. "No. 7058". The Edinburgh Gazette. 16 October 1860. p. 1254.
13. "No. 7231". The Edinburgh Gazette. 13 June 1862. p. 998.
14. "No. 22725". The London Gazette. 10 April 1863. p. 1971.
15. "No. 22422". The London Gazette. 14 September 1860. p. 3370.
16. "No. 23863". The London Gazette. 31 May 1872. p. 2577.
17. "No. 24208". The London Gazette. 14 May 1875. p. 2627.
18. "No. 24853". The London Gazette. 8 June 1880. p. 3371.
19. Geoffrey B. A. M. Finlayson. The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801–1885 Published by Regent College Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1-57383-314-2, ISBN 978-1-57383-314-1, 640 pages, p. 501 in particular refers to the future 8th Earl's debts, but there are other references. Page 500 refers to the birth of the future 9th Earl in 1869.
20. "Shocking Occurrence in London. Suicide of Lord Shaftsbury". The Cornishman. No. 404. 15 April 1886. p. 8.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Shaftesbury

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Digby Seymour James Clay	Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull 1857–1859 With: James Clay	Succeeded by Joseph Hoare James Clay
Preceded by John Neeld John Neeld	Member of Parliament for Cricklade 1859–1865 With: Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard	Succeeded by Sir Daniel Gooch Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard
Peerage of England
Preceded by Anthony Ashley-Cooper	Earl of Shaftesbury 1885–1886	Succeeded by Anthony Ashley-Cooper