John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater KB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, PC

Privy Council of England

The Privy Council of England, also known as His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England...

 (1579 – 4 December 1649) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 peer and politician.

The son of the Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley

Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley

Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley PC was an English Nobleman, Judge and Statesman who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-one years.-Early life, education and legal career:...

 and Elizabeth Ravenscroft, he was a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Callington

Callington (UK Parliament constituency)

Callington was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1585 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.-History:...

 from 1597 to 1598, and for Shropshire

Shropshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Shropshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Knights...

 in 1601. Knighted on 8 April 1599, he was Baron of the Exchequer of Chester

Exchequer of Chester

The Exchequer of Chester was a fiscal court based in the County Palatine of Chester. In 1071 the Earldom of Chester was created, and due to the Earldom's size it ruled Chester almost entirely independently as a County Palatine. This arrangement necessitated a large number of officials, including...

 from 1599 to 1605. In 1603, Egerton was appointed a Knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 of the Order of Bath and in 1605, he received a Master of Arts

Master of Arts (Oxbridge)

In the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts of these universities are admitted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university .There is no examination or study required for the degree...

 from the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. Having succeeded to his father's titles in March 1617, he was created Earl of Bridgewater on 27 May 1617.

Egerton was sworn of the Privy Council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 in 1626. From 1605 to 1646, he was Custos Rotulorum of Shropshire

Custos Rotulorum of Shropshire

This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Shropshire.* Thomas Holte bef. 1544–1546* Sir Thomas Bromley 1546–1555* Humphrey Onslow bef. 1562 – aft. 1564* George Bromley bef. 1573–1589* Sir George Mainwaring bef...

 and from 1628 to 1649 Custos Rotulorum of Buckinghamshire

Custos Rotulorum of Buckinghamshire

This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Buckinghamshire.* Sir Francis Bryan bef. 1544 – bef. 1547* Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford bef. 1547 – c. 1578* Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey of Wilton c...

. Between 1631 and 1642, he was Lord President of Wales and Lord Lieutenant of Wales

Lord Lieutenant of Wales

The Lord Lieutenant of Wales was an office associated with the Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches until the abolition of that body in 1689. The Lord Presidents of Wales were also Lord Lieutenants of Wales, except for the years 1602–1629, when the county of Glamorgan formed a...

 and the Marches of Herefordshire

Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire. Before the English Civil War, the lieutenancy of Herefordshire was always held by the Lord Lieutenant of Wales, but after the Restoration, its lieutenants were appointed separately...

, Monmouthshire

Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire

This is a list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire. Before the English Civil War, the lieutenancy of Monmouthshire was held by the Lord Lieutenant of Wales, except for the period from 1602 to 1629, when it formed a separate lieutenancy in conjunction with Glamorgan...

, Shropshire

Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire. Before the English Civil War, the lieutenancy of Shropshire was always held by the Lord Lieutenant of Wales, but after the Restoration, its lieutenants were appointed separately...

 and Worcestershire

Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire. Since 1719, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Worcestershire.-Lord Lieutenants of Worcestershire to 1974:...

.

John Milton's Comus

Comus (John Milton)

Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A...

celebrates the installation of Egerton, as Lord President of Wales. Egerton died intestate and was buried in Little Gaddesden

Little Gaddesden

Little Gaddesden is a village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire three miles north of Berkhamsted. As well as Little Gaddesden village , the parish contains the settlements of Ashridge , Hudnall , and part of Ringshall .Part of the parish was formerly in Buckinghamshire...

 in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.

Family

On 27 June 1602, Egerton married Lady Frances Stanley, daughter of the Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby was the son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and Lady Margaret Clifford. According to the will of Henry VIII, his mother was heiress presumptive of Elizabeth I of England from 1578 to her own death in 1596...

 and Lady Alice Spencer

Alice Spencer

Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby was an aristocratic English woman, and a noted patron of the arts. Poet Edmund Spenser represented her as "Amaryllis" in his pastoral poem Colin Clouts Come Home Againe and dedicated his The Teares of the Muses to her. Her first husband was Ferdinando Stanley, 5th...

. Coincidentally, Frances's mother Alice married, after the death of Ferdinando Stanley, on 20 October 1600, John's father Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley. John and Frances had eight children:

• Lady Elizabeth Egerton (d. 1688), married David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter
  David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter
  David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter was an English peer and member of the House of Lords.-Life:David Cecil was the son of Sir Richard Cecil of Wakerley, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1627. In 1640, he sat for Peterborough in the Short...
  
  
• Lady Mary Egerton (d. 1659), married Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury
  Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury
  Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury was an Anglo-Welsh Member of Parliament, a Royalist who fought with the rank of Colonel in the English Civil War, and a peer whose membership of the House of Lords was curtailed by its abolition in 1649.-Life:Herbert, born about 1604, was the elder...
  
  
• Lady Frances Egerton (d.1664), married Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet
  Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet
  Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet was an English politician and baronet.-Background:Born in Norwich, he was the eldest son of Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet and his wife Dorothy Bell, daughter of Sir Robert Bell. His younger brother was Miles Hobart...
  
  
• Lady Alice Egerton (d. 1689), married Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery
  Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery
  Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery KB, PC , styled The Honourable from 1621 until 1628 and then Lord Vaughan until 1634, was a Welsh soldier, peer and politician...
  
   as his third wife.
• Lady Arabella Egerton (d. 1669), married Oliver St John, 5th Baron St John of Bletso
  Oliver St John, 5th Baron St John of Bletso
  Oliver St John, 5th Baron St John of Bletso was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1624 to 1629 and in the House of Lords from 1639. He died fighting in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War....
  
  
• James Egerton, Viscount Brackley (1616–1620), died young
• Charles Egerton, Viscount Brackley (b. 1623), died young
• John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater
  John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater
  John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater PC was an English nobleman.He was a son of John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater and his wife Lady Frances Stanley...
  
  (1623–1686)