Heroes of Faith: Lord Shaftesbury (Antony Ashley Cooper)

Compiled by Dr. John Hill

Lord Ashley, who later became Lord Shaftesbury, grew up in a rich family in England. He went to good schools, starting in London, then Harrow School, and finally Oxford University. At Oxford, he was a top student in classics—subjects like Latin and Greek.

Even though he had a wealthy home, Ashley's childhood was very sad. His parents didn’t show him love or care. They were cold and strict. He felt afraid of them, and even as an adult, he had harsh words for them. But one person in the house was kind—Maria Millis, the housekeeper. She loved Ashley, told him Bible stories, and taught him how to pray. Her Christian faith deeply touched him and helped shape his own.

School life was also hard for Ashley. At his first school, the building was dirty, and the children were treated badly. He remembered being hungry and afraid there.

As a teenager, Ashley became a strong Christian. While at Harrow, two events changed him. One day, he saw a funeral for a poor man. The men carrying the coffin were drunk and laughing. Ashley was shocked. He realized many people in England were treated without respect or care.

Another time, Ashley wrote a Latin poem about a dirty pond at school. He wanted the school to clean it up. His plan worked—they filled in the pond. This small success made him feel confident. He saw that he could speak up and make change happen. 

These early experiences—his sad home, the kindness of a Christian servant, and the things he saw at school—all helped him become the man he would later be: someone who worked hard to help the poor and bring justice through his Christian faith.

Ashley became a member of Parliament in 1826 when he was still a young man. He quickly began to care about how people with mental illness—called "lunatics" back then—were treated, especially poor people who could not pay for good care.

In 1827, Ashley joined a group of lawmakers to look into a place called the White House, a home for people with mental illness in London. What he found was terrible. People were chained up, had no clothes, and had to sleep on straw. They had to go to the bathroom where they slept. No one cleaned them for days, and when they finally were washed, they were sprayed with freezing water. There was only one towel for over 100 people, and the food was awful. Ashley saw that people were being treated worse than animals.

Ashley spoke to Parliament about what he saw and helped write new laws in 1828. These laws made sure places that cared for people with mental illness were checked often and followed rules. He gave his first speech in Parliament to support these changes and felt proud that his work was helping people.

Over the years, Ashley kept fighting for better care. In 1845, he helped pass two more laws that made care homes keep better records and follow new rules. Hospitals had to be built in the country so people could get fresh air and space. A group called the Lunacy Commission was created to inspect these hospitals, and Ashley became the leader.

In one case, Ashley found a girl in Wales named Mary Jones who had been locked in a tiny room with no window for over 10 years. She could not stand up straight anymore. Stories like hers made Ashley work even harder.

Some people later worried that it was too easy to send someone to a mental hospital. But Ashley said this was not true. He had spent many years making sure people were treated fairly. He told lawmakers that only a very small number of people had been sent to hospitals by mistake.

Ashley stayed involved for over 50 years. Even when he was old and tired, he gave speeches and answered questions from lawmakers. He was afraid people would forget his hard work, but many still listened to him.

In 1884, a woman tried to sue Ashley and others after her husband said she was insane because she believed her dog had a soul. The case failed, but it showed how careful Ashley had to be in his work. He later resigned when new rules were made that he could not support, but he returned when those rules were dropped.

Lord Shaftesbury helped change how people with mental illness were treated in England. His kind heart and Christian faith guided him to protect those who had no voice.

In 1833, Lord Ashley tried to help children who worked in factories. He brought a new law to Parliament called the Ten Hours Act. This law said that children working in cotton and wool factories had to be at least nine years old. It also said that no one under eighteen should work more than ten hours a day or eight hours on Saturdays. People under twenty-five were not allowed to work at night. The law also said children should go to school, and there would be inspectors to make sure the rules were followed.

But the government changed the law. They said it would only protect children under thirteen, not eighteen. The law passed, but it didn’t go as far as Ashley wanted.

In 1836, another Ten Hours law was suggested. Ashley didn’t think the timing was good, but he still supported it. People said that no one cared more about factory workers than Lord Ashley. He was known as their loyal friend.

In 1837, Ashley told the government they were not doing enough to protect children. He wanted better rules, but his idea lost by just fifteen votes.

Ashley also helped a man named William Dodd, who had been badly hurt working in a factory. With Ashley’s help, Dodd wrote a book in 1840 about his painful life. Ashley paid Dodd to write another book in 1842 about how hard life was for child workers. But later, another leader said Dodd wasn’t telling the truth. Ashley fired Dodd, and Dodd moved to America.

In 1842, Ashley wrote to the Prime Minister, asking for better laws for children in factories. The Prime Minister said no. Ashley then wrote to factory workers, saying: “I will never give up. I will keep fighting for you until my last day.”

In 1844, Ashley tried again. He wanted to limit work for teenagers to ten hours a day. At first, he won the vote, but later it was overturned, and the new law failed. Still, he did not stop trying.

In 1847, after many years of hard work, a new Ten Hours Act was finally passed. It became law and helped protect many working children.

Lord Ashley never gave up. He worked for years to make life better for children in factories, even when others disagreed. He did it because he believed it was right and because of his deep Christian faith.

Ashley cared deeply about protecting children, especially those forced to work in dangerous jobs. One of the worst jobs for boys at that time was being a chimney sweep. These boys were often very young, sometimes just five or six years old. Many had been sold by their parents and had no one to care for them.

The job was painful and dangerous. The boys had to climb up inside chimneys, which were narrow and filled with soot. Their skin got burned and cut, and the soot made it hard for them to breathe. Over time, they could get very sick, even developing cancer from the soot on their skin.

In 1840, a new law was suggested to stop boys from being used as chimney sweeps. Ashley strongly supported it. The law worked in London, but in other places, boys were still being forced to climb chimneys. So, Ashley helped start a group called the Climbing-Boys' Society to keep fighting for these children. He became the leader of the group.

In the years 1851, 1853, and 1855, Ashley tried again and again to pass new laws to stop this cruel practice, but each time the law was voted down. Finally, in 1864, a new law was passed to make rules for chimney sweeps. But this law also failed to protect the boys, because no one made sure the rules were followed.

Ashley didn’t give up. At last, in 1875, Parliament passed a strong law called the Chimney Sweepers Act. This law said chimney sweeps had to be licensed every year and the police had to make sure the law was obeyed. This law finally ended the use of boys as chimney sweeps in England.

One day, Lord (Ashley) Shaftesbury found a young chimney sweep living behind his own house in London. He took the boy in and sent him to a Christian school where the child could learn, grow, and be safe. Ashley said he hoped the boy would learn about God’s love and grace.

Lord Shaftesbury worked for many years to end this cruel practice, and he never gave up—because he believed every child deserved to be safe, loved, and free.

Lord Shaftesbury was a Christian who believed Jesus would return to Earth very soon. Because of this belief, he felt that Christians needed to take action right away to help others and share the message of the Bible. He was part of the evangelical Anglican church, which focused on the Bible, personal faith, and living a godly life.

Shaftesbury did not agree with people in the Church of England who started using more Catholic-style worship, like incense and robes. He also didn’t like the Oxford Movement, which tried to bring back more Catholic traditions. Even though he strongly disagreed with the Catholic Church, he still believed Catholics should have the same rights as others. He even supported a law called Catholic Emancipation, even though his own father did not.

Shaftesbury was a leader in many Christian groups. He was the president of the British and Foreign Bible Society from 1851 until he died in 1885. He said this group was “nearest to my heart” because it helped bring the Bible to people all over the world. He was also a president of the Evangelical Alliance, another Christian group that shared his faith.

Shaftesbury also believed that Jewish people should return to their ancient homeland in the land called Palestine (now part of Israel). He thought this was part of God’s plan. In 1838, he helped convince the British government to send a consul, James Finn, to Jerusalem. He believed the land could grow many crops like cotton, silk, and olives, and that it would help both the Jewish people and the British economy. He said British leadership would keep the land safe so Jews could return and farm again.

In 1839, he published a paper that was the first time a major politician said that Jews should go back to live in Palestine. He later became the president of a group called the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews.

In 1853, just before the Crimean War, Shaftesbury wrote a letter saying that the land of Syria (which included Palestine) had no clear ruler. He wrote that this land was “a country without a nation,” and that the Jewish people, who had no country of their own, were the rightful people to live there. He believed that God was calling Britain to help the Jewish people return.

Shaftesbury’s strong Christian faith shaped everything he did—from helping the poor to supporting the Jewish people. He believed it was his duty to follow God’s will with action, not just words.

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain was built in 1893 in Piccadilly Circus, London to honor Lord Shaftesbury’s lifelong work helping others. On top of the fountain is a statue made by Alfred Gilbert. It shows Anteros, a butterfly-winged archer, as a symbol of love and kindness. The statue is officially called "The Angel of Christian Charity."

When Lord Shaftesbury died in 1885, he was offered a special honor—to be buried in Westminster Abbey, where many famous people are laid to rest. But Shaftesbury had a different wish. He wanted to be buried at St. Giles, a simpler place.

A funeral service was still held at Westminster Abbey early on October 8th. That morning, the streets of London were filled with poor people who had come to say goodbye. These were the same kinds of people Shaftesbury had spent his life helping—flower girls, factory workers, boot-blacks, crossing-sweepers, and costermongers. They waited for hours just to see his coffin go by. Because of his deep care for the working class, people began calling him “The Poor Man’s Earl.”

George Williams, the founder of the YMCA, helped organize the funeral and even carried the coffin as a pallbearer. Today, a white marble statue of Lord Shaftesbury stands near the west door of Westminster Abbey to remember all the good he did.

Just three days after Shaftesbury died, the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon spoke about him in church. Spurgeon said the world had lost one of its greatest men. He said Shaftesbury loved God and people, and worked harder than anyone Spurgeon had ever known. He called him “the best man of the age” and said he had no faults that he could see.

Spurgeon said Shaftesbury was a man of truth, courage, and faith. He helped the poor, stood up for what was right, and stayed loyal to God’s Word even when others didn’t. Spurgeon said, “He lived for the oppressed; he lived for London; he lived for the nation; he lived still more for God.”

Though many mourned his passing, they were comforted in knowing he was now at peace with the Lord he served so faithfully.

Reference

Wolffe, John (3 January 2008). "Cooper, Anthony Ashley-, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6210 **Available only by subscription or institutional access. 

Battiscombe, Georgina. Shaftesbury: A Biography of the Seventh Earl, 1801-1885. (London: Constable) 1974. https://archive.org/details/shaftesburybiogr0000batt

Finlayson, Geoffrey. The Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885. (London: Eyre Methuen) 2004.https://archive.org/details/seventhearlofsha0000finl

Bready, John Wesley. “Lord Shaftesbury and Social-industrial Progress.” (London: G.Allen & Uniwn Itd) 1926. https://archive.org/details/lordshaftesburys0000brea/page/n5/mode/2up