Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/331

 BRIDGWATER 315 EARLDOM. 7. John William (Egerton), Earl of Bridg- water, fePc, cousin and h. male, being 2nd hut ist surv. VIII. 1803. s. and h. of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, by his 1st wife, Anne Sophia, da. and coh. of Henry (Grey), Dlke of Kent, which John was ist s. of Henry Egerton, Bishop of Hereford, by Elizabeth Ariana, da. of William (Bentinck), Earl of Portland, which Henry was 6th s. of John, 3rd Earl of Bridgwater, and yst. br. of Scroop, the ist Duke. He was b. 14 Apr., and bap. 8 May 1753, at St. Geo., Han. Sq. ; entered the army 1771; Capt. 1776; Major 1779; Lieut. Col. 7th Light Dragoons 1790; Col. 1793; Major Gen. 1795; Col. of the 14th Light Dragoons 1797 till his death; Lieut. Gen. 1802; Gen. in the Army 1812. He was M.P. (Tor-) for Morpeth 1777-80; and for Brackley 1 780-1 803. F.R.S. 28 Jan. 1808; F.S.A. 4 Feb. 1808. He bone, Charlotte Catherine Anne, onlv da. and h. of Samuel Hayxes, by Elizabeth ( — ). He d. s.p., at Ashridge Park (the mansion whereof he had rebuilt), 21, and was bur. 30 Oct. 1823, at Little Gaddesden. M.I. Under his will, dat. 31 Mar. 1823, his estates in Midx., Herts, Bucks, Beds, Northants, Oxon, Salop, Cheshire, Flintshire, Yorkshire, Durham, and elsewhere, devolved, after the death of his widow and his br., on his great- nephew, John Home-Cust (formerly Hume-Cust, and subsequently Eger- ton), styled Viscount Alford, for life and his issue in tail male, subject how- ever to certain conditions (") which were set aside as illegal. His widow, Frances Leveson Gower, fr., in 1846, Viscount Brackley and Earl of Ellesmere. The rest of the family estates, viz. those in Herts and Bucks (including Ashridge Park), those in Salop (including Ellesmere) and in Yorkshire, he devised to his cousin and h. male, viz. his successor in the Earldom of Bridgwater. In 1775 he appears "the D..e of B r and Miss L..gl.y" [Miss Langley], in the notorious tete-h-tke portraits in Town and Country ^'^ag., for an account of which see Appendix B in the last vol. of this work. G.E.C. He was engaged to the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning after the death of her ist husband, the Duke of Hamilton, but the match was broken off owing to his insisting on her discarding the society of her sister, Lady Coventry. The task of connecting Manchester by canal with Liverpool and the sea taxed his resources to the utmost, and he was compelled to live for a time on ^^500 />.(?., and had the greatest difficulty in paying the workmen. His canal was bought by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, about 1890, for ^Tl, 7x0,000. "He smoked gready, and was an inveterate snuff taker, while his dress was careless in the extreme. Resembling George III in features, he was clothed after the fashion of Dr. Johnson. Regardless of his own comfort, he was a good employer and a generous subscriber to benevolent work." After the failure of his love affair, he became " a typical mysogynist, and would have no woman servant." V.G. (^) These were that if " Lord Viscount Alford shall die without having acquired the title and dignity of Duie or Marquh of Bridgeiuater to him and the heirs male of his body " (unless such title had been obtained by Earl Brownlow [the Viscount's father] or by testator's brother with a spec. rem. to Earl Brownlow and the heirs male of that Earl's body by his first wife) then in such case the estate limited to the heirs male of the said Viscount's body should be void and the next rem. take effect. Lord
 * «., 14 Jan. 1783, by spec. lie. at her father's house, 58 Welbeck Str., Maryle-