Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury Bt (26 February 1671 – 16 February 1713) was an English politician, philosopher and writer.

He was born at Exeter House in London, the grandson of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and son of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury. His mother was Lady Dorothy Manners, daughter of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. According to a story told by the third earl, the marriage was negotiated by John Locke, who was a trusted friend of the first earl. The second Lord Shaftesbury has been traditionally, and possibly unfairly, regarded to have been both physically and mentally inadequate, although the letters sent by a youthful third earl to both his parents reveal a rather more complex picture, not least the emotional manipulation attempted by his mother in refusing to see her son unless he cut off all ties to his father. At the age of three the future Third Earl was made over to the formal guardianship of his grandfather. Locke, who in his capacity of medical attendant to the Ashley household, had already assisted at the child's birth, was now entrusted with the supervision of his education. This was conducted according to the principles enunciated in Locke's Thoughts concerning Education, and the method of teaching Latin and Greek conversationally was pursued with such success by his instructress, Elizabeth Birch, that at the age of eleven, it is said, Ashley could read both languages with ease. Birch had moved to Clapham and Ashley spent some years there with her.

In November 1683, some months after the death of the first Earl, his father sent him to Winchester College as a warden's boarder. Being shy and mocked because of his grandfather, he appears to have been miserable at school. He left Winchester in 1686 for a course of foreign travel. This brought him into contact with artistic and classical associations which would strongly influence his character and opinions. On his travels he apparently did not seek the conversation of other young English gentlemen on their travels, but rather that of their tutors, with whom he could converse on congenial topics.

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