LADY COWPER’S SITTING-ROOM.
Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, Earl Cowper, Viscount Fordwich, County Kent, Baron Cowper of Wingham, Kent, in the Peerage of Great Britain; Baron Butler of Moore Park, Herts, and Baron Lucas of Crudwell, Wilts, in the Peerage of England; Baron of Dingwall, County Ross, Peerage of Scotland; Privy Councillor, Knight of the Garter, and Prince and Count of the Holy Roman Expire; Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Bedfordshire; Colonel of the First Herts Rifle Volunteers, etc.
BORN 1834, SUCCEEDED TO THE EARLDOM IN 1856, AND TO THE BARONY OF LUCAS IN 1880.
By George F. Watts, R.A.
THE eldest son of the sixth Earl Cowper by the eldest daughter and coheiress of Earl De Grey. He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, where he was first class in Law and Modern History. From 1871 till 1873, Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms; from 1880 till 1882 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Having married in 1870 Mary Katrine Compton, eldest daughter to the fourth Marquis of Northampton. In 1871 Lord Cowper established his claim to the baronies of Butler and Dingwall, obtaining an Act of Parliament for the reversal of the attainder of those titles. Few Englishmen can boast among their ancestry names more celebrated on the pages of history,—the names of men who, differing in class, country, and characteristics, have each swayed the destiny of nations,—the Patriot Stadtholder of Holland, the Royalist Viceroy of Ireland, and the Protector of England, the late Lady Cowper being a lineal descendant of one of Cromwell’s daughters.
