Egerton

Several members of the Egerton Family feature in the history of Chester. The Egertons are an ancient Cheshire family, seated at Oulton Park near Tarporley since the Middle Ages. An ancestor of Roland Egerton the 1st Baronet, William le Belward, took the surname of Egerton from the lordship of Egerton, which he inherited.

Thomas Egerton (1540 - 15th March 1617)


Known as Lord 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-one years.

Thomas Egerton was born in 1540 in the parish of Dodleston, Cheshire, England. Thomas is associated with the traditional legend of how Gallantry Bank at Bickerton got its name. He was the illegitimate son of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley and an unmarried woman named Alice Sparks from Bickerton. Pennant records:


 * "The mother had been so much neglected by Sir Richard Egerton, of Ridley, the father of the boy, that she was reduced to beg for support. A neighbouring gentleman, a friend of Sir Richard, saw her asking alms, followed by her child. He admired its beauty, and saw in it the evident features of the Knight. He immediately went to Sir Richard, and laid before him the disgrace of suffering his own offspring, illegitimate as it was, to wander from door to door. He was affected with the reproof, adopted the child, and by a proper education, laid the foundation of his future fortune."

He was thus acknowledged by his father’s family, who paid for his education. He studied Liberal Arts at Brasenose College, Oxford, and received a Bachelor’s Degree in 1559. He then studied law at Lincoln's Inn and became a barrister. He was a Roman Catholic, until a point in 1570 when his lack of conformity with the Church of England became an issue when his Inn passed on a complaint from the Privy Council.

Egerton purchased the site of the Carmelite friary in Whitefriars. He had the plot flattened and built what was apparently one of the finest mansions in the city. He bought Tatton Park, in 1598 from his half sister Dorothy Brereton. It would stay in the family for more than three centuries. In 1597 or 1598 – he hired the poet John Donne as secretary. This arrangement ended in some embarrassment, since Donne secretly married Ann More, Elizabeth's niece, in 1601. Egerton was made Chamberlain of Chester in 1593.

Thomas Egerton was thrice married (into the local gentry after his first wife died). By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft of Bretton, Flintshire, he had two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Thomas, predeceased him, leaving three daughters. The younger, John, succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Brackley, was created Earl of Bridgewater, and, marrying Lady Frances Stanley (daughter of his father's third wife, widow of the 5th Earl of Derby), was the ancestor of the earls and dukes of Bridgewater, whose male line became extinct in 1829.

John Egerton (1579 – 4th December 1649)


The son of Sir Thomas Egerton and Elizabeth Ravenscroft, he matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1589 at the age of 10, graduating as Bachelor of Arts in 1594. Egerton served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Callington from 1597 to 1598, and for Shropshire in 1601. Knighted on 8 April 1599, he was Baron of the Exchequer of Chester from 1599 to 1605.

On 27 June 1602, Egerton married Lady Frances Stanley, daughter of Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby and Lady Alice Spencer, Lord Bridgewater's step-mother (after Ferdinando Stanley's death, on 20 October 1600, Lady Alice had married John's father Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley).

Having succeeded to his father's titles in March 1617, he was created Earl of Bridgewater on 27 May 1617.

John Milton's Comus celebrates his installation as Lord President of Wales. An air of controversy surrounds this masque, as the Earl of Castlehaven, Bridgewater's brother-in-law, was the subject of a sordid sodomy and rape scandal for which he was executed. Some critics have conjectured that the masque, with its focus on chastity, was designed to "cleanse" the Egerton family.

Francis Egerton (21 May 1736 – 8 March 1803)
He was the youngest son of the 1st Duke. The Bridgewater Canal 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 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.

He did not marry, and the dukedom expired with him, although the earldom was inherited by a cousin, Lieutenant-General John Egerton.

Related Pages

 * Whitefriars;
 * Shakespeare and Chester;
 * Merchant Adventurers;