EGERTON, George Granville Francis, viscount Brackley (1823-1862), of Bridgewater House, St. James’s, Middlesex; Worsley Hall, Lancashire; Hatchford, near Cobham, Surrey

Elected in controversial circumstances, Brackley’s chronic poor health prevented him from pursuing an active parliamentary career and prompted his early retirement. ‘From youth he had been sickly and partially deaf’.1Disraeli, Derby, and the Conservative party: the political journal of Lord Stanley, 1849-69, ed. J.R. Vincent (1978), 191 (20 Sept. 1862). Brackley’s political opinions remain ambiguous, and at the 1847 general election he stood under three different party labels in three different constituencies. This prompted the Whig grandee Lord Hatherton to drily comment that Brackley had ‘sided with all parties in his attempts to get into Parl[iamen]t’.2Hatherton Journal, 10 Aug. 1847, Staffordshire Record Office, D260/M/F/5/26/43. An obituary stated that Brackley gave ‘his independent support to Lord J. Russell’s Administration, although a Liberal Conservative in politics’.3Gent. Mag. (1862), ii. 491. However, he missed so many divisions due to poor health that one historian has categorised him as of ‘uncertain’ party allegiance.4J.B. Conacher, The Peelites and the party system (1972), 230.

Brackley’s father Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (1800-57) was the younger son of George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758-1833), 2nd marquess of Stafford and 1st duke of Sutherland, whose immense estates and industrial interests led him to be fittingly described as the ‘Leviathan of wealth’. Lord Francis represented Bletchingley, 1822-6 and Sutherland, 1826-31 in the unreformed Parliament.5HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 91-8. After his father’s death in 1833, Lord Francis inherited the huge Bridgewater estates in Lancashire and Cheshire, and assumed the surname Egerton, while equally substantial landholdings in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Sutherland passed to his elder brother, George Granville Leveson Gower (1786-1861), the 2nd duke.6G.C. Boase, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, ‘Egerton, Francis, first earl of Ellesmere (1800-57)’, www.oxforddnb.com. Unlike his Whig brother, Lord Francis was a Conservative and then Peelite MP for South Lancashire from 1835 until he was ennobled as the 1st earl of Ellesmere in July 1846.7Ibid.

At the 1847 general election Brackley was brought forward as a Peelite candidate for South Lancashire, his father’s old constituency, appealing to Whigs and Peelites who wanted a free trade MP but not one put up by the Anti-Corn Law League.8The Times, 4 June 1847. However, the League’s introduction of another candidate forced him to retire.9The Times, 12 June 1847. Brackley offered as a Liberal for Newcastle-under-Lyme, drawing on the residual Trentham influence of his uncle, the duke of Sutherland. He followed other candidates in deferring to the opinions of local freemen by promising support for free trade and a revision of the poor laws, and opposition to any increase in the Maynooth grant.10Staffordshire Advertiser, 17 July 1847. Brackley was narrowly beaten into third place, but accepted an invitation to stand for North Staffordshire while staying at Trentham, which led many to think he had the endorsement of the absent duke.

However, Edward Buller, former MP and Liberal candidate was astonished to discover that Brackley was ‘with very little disguise … the Conservative, Protectionist & No Popery candidate, & further that the whole weight of the Trentham influence would be used in his favour’.11Edward Buller to Lord Hatherton, 1 Aug. 1847, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/27/17; Staffordshire Advertiser, 7 Aug. 1847. Brackley’s behaviour placed his aunt, the duchess in ‘a most difficult position’ and she was strongly criticised in the press for misusing her husband’s influence.12Viscount Anson, memorandum, Staffs. RO, D615/P(P)/1/22. In fact, she was fully aware that the duke preferred Buller and took steps to advertise this, but this came too late to prevent Brackley and his protectionist colleague winning a comfortable victory over Buller.13Duchess of Sutherland to Viscount Anson, n.d., Staffs. RO, D615/P(P)/1/22. Close observers like Thomas George Anson, visct. Anson, Whig MP for Lichfield, exonerated the duchess and blamed Brackley for the controversy.14Viscount Anson, memorandum, Staffs. RO, D615/P(P)/1/22. The Tory squire of Keele Park, Ralph Sneyd thought that ‘Brackley made a mess in N. Staffordshire’, while Edward Richard Littleton, Whig MP for Walsall, wrote that ‘the general impression [is] that Ld Brackley behaved in a shabby manner’.15Ralph Sneyd to earl of Clare, n.d. Keele University, SC 7/93; Edward Richard Littleton Journal, 31 July 1847, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/26/99.

Brackley was described by Charles Dod as a Conservative, a verdict supported by his membership of the Carlton Club.16Dod’s parliamentary companion: 1847 new parliament (1847), 134. However, at the nomination for North Staffordshire he had said that he had ‘a firm determination to support Lord John Russell and the present government so long as he goes thus far and no further’.17Staffordshire Advertiser, 7 Aug. 1847. He opposed Jewish relief in 1848, and in the following year opposed the repeal of the navigation laws, both of which suggest he inclined towards the Protestantism and protectionism of the Derbyites. However, it remains difficult to draw any conclusions as he is not known to have spoken and had an increasingly poor attendance record. Brackley voted in 32 (15%) out of 219 divisions in the 1849 session, but missed all the important votes of the following session.18Hampshire Telegraph, 20 Oct. 1849. He did serve on the select committee on the slave trade that reported in 1849, where he was in the majority that proposed discontinuing the deployment of Royal Navy ships off the African coast to suppress the trade.19PP 1847-48 (623), xxii. 706, 711-29; 1849 (410), xix. 180, 197, 181-3.

Brackley retired due to his ‘shattered health’ in February 1851, although Sneyd noted that he was ‘as usual –gauche & wrote to apprise the Duke [of Sutherland] of his resignation, after the D. had read it in all the newspapers & after there had been public meetings held in consequence of it’.20Gent. Mag. (1862), ii. 492; Sneyd to Clare, Keele University, SC 7/194. He succeeded his father as 2nd earl of Ellesmere in 1857, inheriting ‘very large’ property ‘generally estimated at £80,000 a year’.21Derby, Disraeli and the Conservative party, 191 (20 Sept. 1862). Ellesmere was active in raising money to alleviate the cotton famine in Lancashire and Cheshire, notably at a meeting held at his London residence, Bridgewater House in 1861.22Gent. Mag. (1862), ii. 492. On Ellesmere’s death the following year aged just 39 years, Lord Stanley wrote:

He had always been an invalid, but his illness was not announced, and his death came to all of us as a surprise. … he took no active part in public affairs and mixed but little in society. His estates were well managed, and his affairs, I believe, properly regulated. He was always spoken of with respect in Lancs. though not personally well-known.23Derby, Disraeli and the Conservative party, 191 (20 Sept. 1862).

Both of Ellesmere’s younger brothers had parliamentary careers. Algernon Fulke Egerton (1825-91) was Conservative MP for South Lancashire, 1859-68, South East Lancashire, 1868-80, and Wigan, 1880-2. Francis Egerton (1824-95) was Liberal MP for East Derbyshire, 1868-85 and North East Derbyshire, 1885-6.24M. Stenton, Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1976), i. 124. Ellesmere was succeeded by his elder son Francis Charles Granville Egerton (1847-1914), 3rd earl of Ellesmere. His younger son Alfred John Francis Egerton (1854-90), was Conservative MP for Eccles, 1885-90.25M. Stenton and S. Lees, Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1976), ii. 108.