ABSTRACT
Antony Ashley Cooper was the eldest son of the sixth Earl of Shaftesbury. He was styled Lord Ashley from 1811, at which date his father became a peer, until he succeeded his father in 1851. Ashley was rescued from the solitude of his early life by an old servant of the family, a strict Evangelical, of the name of Maria Millis. An entry in Ashley’s diary shows the simple hopefulness with which his evangelical mind measured the obstacles to India’s religious conversion. The Ministry of which Ashley was a subordinate member is famous in history for the act which composed or prevented a rebellion in Ireland, and provoked a rebellion in the Tory party. Ashley’s first considerable speech was made in supporting a Bill to amend the Lunacy Laws in 1828. Ashley made, in 1830, a marriage that looked on the face of it a hazardous experiment.
