Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (28 April 1801 – 1 October 1885) was the Tory and Conservative Party MP for Woodstock from 1826 to 1830, for Dorchester from 1830 to 1831, for Dorset from 1831 to 1846, and for Bath from 1847 to 1851. He was known for his successful efforts to fight for the 1847 Factory Act, fighting against child labor.
Biography[]
Anthony Ashley-Cooper was born in Mayfair, London, England on 28 April 1801, the son of Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury. Due to a lack of love from his parents, he was raised by his family's housekeeper, whose Christian values convinced Anthony to become an evangelical Anglican during his teenage years. He was elected to Parliament in 1826 as the Tory MP for Woodstock, a pocket borough, and he was a staunch supporter of the Duke of Wellington. Lord Ashley campaigned for the British reform movement for several years, fighting to reform the lunacy laws, for child labor and factory reform laws, for education reform, for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and for the suppression of the opium trade. He became the Earl of Shaftesbury on his father's death in 1851, when he left the House of Commons and entered the House of Lords. He served as President of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade from 1880 until his death in 1885.