Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885)

British Tory politician. From 1833 he became the leader in the House of Commons of the movement to improve factory conditions. After successfully obtaining a number of factory acts, he persuaded Parliament to pass the Ten Hours Act of 1847, also known as Lord Ashley's Act. He supported legislation to improve conditions in the mines, notably the Mines Act of 1842 (forbidding the employment of women and children underground), and he secured the passage of the Lunacy Act of 1845, which improved lunatic asylums. In 1846 he persuaded Parliament to forbid the use of children as chimney sweeps.

Shaftesbury was also associated with the movement to provide free education for the poor. He was president of the Ragged Schools Union and the British and Foreign Bible Society, and he helped both Florence Nightingale, founder of the nursing profession, and the philanthropist Dr Thomas Barnardo. He became Lord Ashley in 1811, and Earl in 1851. Despite his reforming work, he was accused of neglecting the labourers on his own estates.