Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Richard Lovell Edgeworth
150px Richard Edgeworth, 1812
Born	(1744-05-31)31 May 1744 Bath, England
Died	Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland
Residence	Edgeworthstown House, Edgeworthstown, Ireland
Nationality	English
Alma mater	Oxford; Trinity College, Dublin
Children	Twenty two, including Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) William Edgeworth (1794–1829) Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881)

Edgeworthstown House, Ireland

Library at Edgeworthstown House 1888

Edgeworth's proposed optical telegraph for use in Ireland. The rotational position of each one of the four indicators represented a number 1-7 (0 being "rest"), forming a four-digit number. The number stood for a particular word in a codebook.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (31 May 1744 – 13 June 1817) was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor.

Biography

Edgeworth was born in Pierrepont Street, Bath, England, great-grandson of Sir Salathiel Lovell through his granddaughter, Jane Lovell.

A Trinity College, Dublin and Oxford alumnus, he is credited for creating, among other inventions, a machine to measure the size of a plot of land. He also made strides in the developing educational methods. He anticipated the caterpillar track with an invention that he played around with for forty years but that he never successfully developed. He described it as a "cart that carries its own road".

He was married four times, including both Honora Sneyd and Frances Beaufort, older sister of Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy. The two men installed a telegraph line for Ireland. Richard Lovell Edgeworth was a member of the Lunar Society. The Lunar Society evolved through various degrees of organization over a period of years, but was only ever an informal group. No constitution, minutes, publications or membership lists survive from any period, and evidence of its existence and activities is found only in the correspondence and notes of those associated with it. Dates given for the society range from sometime before 1760 to it still operating as late as 1813. Fourteen individuals have been identified as having verifiably attended Lunar Society meetings regularly over a long period during its most productive time: these are Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Samuel Galton, Jr., James Keir, Joseph Priestley, William Small, Jonathan Stokes, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, John Whitehurst and William Withering.

Richard Edgeworth and his family lived in Ireland at his estate at Edgeworthstown, County Longford, where he reclaimed bogs and improved roads. He sat in Grattan's Parliament for St Johnstown (County Longford) from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801, and advocated Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform. He was a founder-member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died in Edgworthstown on 13 June 1817.

Family

He was the father of 22 children by his four wives

1. Anna Maria Elers (1743–1773), of whom four children

   Richard Edgeworth (1765–1796), m. Elizabeth Knight 1788. Died in America

   Lovell Edgeworth (1766–1766)

   Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) the novelist

   Emmeline Edgeworth (1770–1817), married Dr. John King of Bristol, October 1802

   Anna Maria Edgeworth (1773–1824), married Dr. Thomas Beddoes 1794.

2. Honora Sneyd (1751 – 1 May 1780), of whom two children

   Honora Edgeworth (1774–1790)

   Lovell Edgeworth (1775–1842), who inherited the property

3. Elizabeth Sneyd (1753–1797), sister of Honora Sneyd, of whom five sons and four daughters

   Elizabeth Edgeworth (1781–1805)

   Henry Edgeworth (1782–1813)

   Charlotte Edgeworth (1783–1807)

   Sophia Edgeworth (1784–1784)

   Charles Sneyd Edgeworth (1786–1864) m. Henrica Broadhurst 1813, succeeded his brother Lovell Edgeworth

   William Edgeworth (1788–1790)

   Thomas Day Edgeworth (1789–1792)

   Honora Edgeworth (1792–1858), married Francis Beaufort 1838

   William Edgeworth (1794–1829), engineer.

4. Frances Ann Beaufort (1769–1865), botanical artist, daughter of Daniel Augustus Beaufort and Esther Gougeon, of whom six children,

   Frances Maria Edgeworth (1799–1848) m. Lestock Wilson 1829

   Harriet Edgeworth (1801–1889) m. Richard Butler 1826

   Sophia Edgeworth (1803–1836) m. Barry Fox 1824

   Lucy Jane (1805–1897), married the Irish astronomer Thomas Romney Robinson 1843.

   Francis Beaufort Edgeworth (1809–1846), Mentioned in Thomas Carlyle's Life of Sterling. Married Rosa Florentina Eroles of Spain, 1831, by whom 2 children

   Antonio Eroles Edgeworth succeeded his uncle Charles Sneyd Edgeworth

   Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (1845–1926), who became an influential economist.

   Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881), m. Christina Macpherson 1846, botanist.

Bibliography

• (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• Works by Richard Lovell Edgeworth at Project Gutenberg
• The four wives of Richard Edgeworth Portraits
• The Edgeworth Family, National Portrait Gallery

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, 1st Bt Francis Hardy	Member of Parliament for St Johnstown (County Longford) 1798 – 1801 Served alongside: William Moore	Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom