About £20 million was invested in canal-building between 1755 and 1835. flower gardens at Worsley. Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater, Bridgewater also spelled Bridgwater, (born May 21, 1736, Worsley, Lancashire, Eng.—died March 8, 1803, London), founder of British inland navigation, whose canal, built from his estates at Worsley to the city of Manchester, is called the Bridgewater canal. the Council of Wales, an office of almost viceregal dignity; but he
He was full of years and honours
He bought any
are-being the illegitimate son of this Sir Richard Egerton, was thus
Chancellor, there was a sort of connection by marriage. unshaken, and so, to his credit, was the Duke, though his purse alone
weaver, named James Hargreaves, working at a new carding-engine, for
until, as the angel was vanquished by Jacob, they succumbed to his
The personal beauty which he is said to have
At thirteen
Not less than twenty
memorable connection began.
the steam-engine, in Newcomen's form of it. But canals
such a project may seem now, it was regarded as one of stupendous
brother-in-law. districts, raising five pounds here and ten pounds there, until he
of the winding stream. with a Duke of Bridgewater, the result might have been altogether different ; and the valleys of Wilts, the coal and iron
presented were," says the poem itself, "The Lord Brackley ; Mr Thomas
(afterwards Earl Gower and Marquis of Stafford, who had married the
As he loved the useful, so
on his estate of Harefield, where Queen Elizabeth had paid him a
in kind, if not in degree, the railway-mania of later days. of Reynolds, still fascinates the beholder. Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater - the 'Canal Duke' - inherited his title at the age of 11.
the founder of the Peel family, was on his road to the invention of
Arcades, had been so successful, should be invited to produce a
first Duke of Sutherland; while his canal-property was devolved
coal at the pit-mouth was s 10d. " who had no other business" there. conferred upon that town the immediate benefit of a cheap and
evident and mysterious marks of recognition by the landlord, and
third Earl the great estates of the Egertons were partly broken up. It is as owner and occupier of Worsley that he
the French fleet near Brest; while, at the same time, the world of
to Manchester beginning to bring in a large annual income, he rode to
among other things, to construct a canal from Worsley to Salford,
the Duke of Bridgewater might never have been led to undertake the
the horse-load Of 280 lbs., it was
great enterprises which make his career conspicuous in the annals of
of it."
extending to forty miles in length. His chief " luxury was tobacco, which he
At Ashridge there is a monument to the memory of Francis Egerton 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), known both as an eccentric and an innovator.
that occasion was undoubtedly among the entertainments presented to
It authorised him,
stepfather to repair, even if they had been willing, the deficiencies
Earl of Ellesmere,* Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chacellors, &.c.
the Irwell, and this project is thought by some to have been the germ
did not arrive at Ludlow, the seat of his government, until late in
and Gilbert--taking counsel we say, though, as the event proved,
of them all, and who survived him, was the widow of Ferdinando, fifth
But strenuous
his memory, and that of Brindley would have been found standing by his side."
than to unite the Trent and the Mersey-and thus the great ports of
Paris, and if his tutor induced him to purchase at Rome some marbles
usually more than doubled before the fireplaces and workshops of
journeying on that between Wigan and " Proud " Preston itself,
his body was deposited in the family vault near Ashridge, his
poet, Spenser; Ben Jonson, Daniel, and Sir John Davies united to
and so lively was the appreciation of these by the public, that the
Brereton had taken unto himself for wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir
promptly provided as occasion required. little mill~ streams of his contrivance. THE canal-system of Great Britain acknowledges a duke as its
France, pouring the treasures of the Orleans Gallery into this
Duke of Bridgewater and Miss Revel, his Grace being just arrived from
;"His Grace, Scroop, first Duke of Bridgewater, took to himself,
"By " navigations " the Doctor meant canals, of the kind which in
The average price of coal
; and in 1845, after the railway had been open for ten years, the
The trade of Manchester
of Bridgewater was first led to think of canal-making, and at the
"heaven-born" engineer, if ever such there was.