Ellesmere was born at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 1 January 1800, the third son of George Leveson-Gower (then known as Lord Gower) and his wife, Elizabeth Gordon who was 19th Countess of Sutherland in her own right.
[11] Appointed a Lord of the Treasury in 1827, he was promoted to Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in February 1828 at the request of William Huskisson, having first to overcome the opposition of his father.
[15] It was reported in 1842 that there had been 101 persons killed and injured in them in the previous three years[16] One of the staff of the 1833 Factory Commission had noted that the Worsley mine "was said to be the best mine in the place" but concluded from what he saw that "the hardest labour in the worst-conducted factory is less hard, less cruel, and less demoralizing than the labour in the best of coal-mines"[17]: 152 [18]: D2, 79–82 One trustee lived in Worsley Old Hall and was the effective manager of the estates, but after he resisted inspection of the books by Egerton's auditor and man of business James Loch MP [19] he was forced out and replaced by Loch.
The room is provided with fire and lights; is open every evening; and is much frequented by the labouring people, as an agreeable resort after their day's work.
A large field, of not less than sixty acres, has been set apart as a recreation ground… Cricket, quoits, and other athletic games are encouraged; and the private band occasionally attends there on pay-days.
Egerton's politics (Tory and protectionist) were not those of (Reform and Free Trade) Manchester, and his association with the Bridgewater trust also told against him.
[27] However, faced with strenuous opposition from Egerton's father, the railway's promoters had won him round to the extent that he had subscribed for over a fifth of the company's capital with a corresponding presence on the board.
I shall do likewise: and if he looks to his ricks I shall look to my chimnies and those of my neighbours" He opposed repeal of the Corn Laws but thought it time for a 'full careful and dispassionate' revision of the current 'sliding scale'.
[36] He was returned unopposed and his victory speech put less stress on the need for revision, but deprecated cries of 'No surrender' on the Corn Law question; it was not a constitutional issue.
[38] He later intervened in a Commons debate to defend the conduct of the Preston magistrates and of the military whilst noting that Preston was an exceptional case: in the Lancashire disturbances there had been a "general absence of a sanguinary disposition, or a spirit of wanton violence"[39][i] In June 1844, Egerton's eldest son George came of age, and a rumour was promptly reported that Egerton was soon to be made Duke of Bridgewater, with George then to stand for South Lancashire.
[42] When in 1845 Egerton voted for an increase in the Maynooth Grant, he received many letters from his constituents complaining, and accusing him of betraying all he had stood for.
He regretted that his views differed from those of his constituents, but if "government was to be administered on the basis that our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens were idolaters", he would be glad to be free of any responsibility for the consequences.
Furthermore, government intervention on food supply and prices was politically unwise: " ..my observation has led me to believe that if you, as a Government, undertake to control and regulate the supply of the means of subsistence to the community, you will find that it is difficult, nay, impossible for you, spread the public table with what profusion you may, to satisfy those who would still retire from the feast with appetites not altogether satiated, and with minds not fully convinced that they have had sufficient for their health, and that all that remains for them is to pray that they may be truly thankful.
"[45] as would be prolonged and bitter argument on the question: "There are dark spots and weak places in various parts of our social system: let us not be blind to them, or neglect the duty of exposing them, with the view of mending and improving them.
His Lordship's position by birth and inheritance is so splendid, and so thoroughly sustained by his character and talents, that his accession to the Peerage seems little more than the correction of an accidental anomaly.
[59] A persistent sufferer from gout and lumbago,[60] he spent the winter of 1839 in Rome for his health (and that of his eldest son), and in the spring and summer of 1840 visited the Holy Land, Egypt,[61] and Greece[62] subsequently recording his impressions in Sketches on the Coast of the Mediterranean (1843).
[63] He published several other works in prose and verse,[2] including a translation of Raumer's History of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, illustrated by original documents:[k] a review in Fraser's Magazine spoke favorably of it and of Egerton's oeuvre to date.
[66] As an admirer of the Duke of Wellington, he became very interested in the historical writings of the Prussian military theorist General Carl von Clausewitz (1789–1831).
He was involved in the discussion that ultimately compelled Wellington to write an essay[67] in response to Clausewitz's study of the Waterloo campaign of 1815.
Ellesmere himself anonymously published a translation of Clausewitz's The Campaign of 1812 in Russia (London: J. Murray, 1843), a subject in which Wellington was also deeply interested.
To the collection of pictures which he inherited from his great-uncle, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, he made numerous additions,[2] [l] and he built a gallery to which the public were allowed free access.