[2] The latter year he succeeded his elder brother in the earldom and entered the House of Lords, in which he served as Chairman of Committees.

[3] Lord Shaftesbury married Lady Anne, daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, on 10 December 1796.

Their second daughter Lady Harriet Anne married Henry Lowry-Corry and was the mother of Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton.

Their fifth and penultimate son, Anthony Francis Ashley Cooper (1810–25), while at Eton was killed in a pugilistic contest.

Lord Shaftesbury died in June 1851, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his son, Anthony, the noted social reformer.