Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury was an English peer, Whig politician, philosopher and writer.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper with his brother Maurice, in a 1702 painting by John Closterman designed to illustrate his Neo-Platonist beliefs
Engraving of Anthony Ashley Cooper in the first volume of Characteristicks from 1732
Philosopher's Tower on the Shaftesbury Estate
Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II. He had already succeeded his father as second Baronet of Rockbourne in 1631 and been created Baron Ashley, of Wimborne St Giles in the County of Dorset, in 1661, and he was made Baron Cooper, of Paulett in the County of Somerset, at the same time he was given the earldom.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
Portrait by Gerard Soest of a member of the Ashley-Cooper family