Francis Egerton Ellesmere, earl of, an English nobleman, born in London, Jan. 1, 1800, died there, Feb. 18, 1857. He was the second son of the first duke of Sutherland, and until the death of his father was known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower. He was educated at Eton, and at Christchurch, Oxford, left the university in 1820, and in 1822 entered parliament as a liberal conservative and a supporter of Canning, and became one of the earliest and most earnest advocates of free trade. He also supported the project for establishing the university of London, and on one occasion carried a motion through the house of commons for the endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland. In 1827 he was a lord of the treasury; from January, 1828, to July, 1830, he was chief secretary for Ireland; and from July to November, 1830, he was secretary at war. In 1833, upon the decease of his father, he came into possession of the immense estates of the late duke of Bridgewater, and of the picture gallery, valued at £150,000, which had been bequeathed to the duke of Sutherland, with reversion to his second son; on which occasion he assumed the name of Egerton in the place of his patronymic of Leveson-Gower. In 1835 he was elected member of parliament for South Lancashire, and represented that constituency till 1846, when he was raised to the peerage as earl of Ellesmere, after which he retired from active political life.

In 1841 he was elected rector of the university of Aberdeen. While a student at the university he printed a volume of poems for private circulation; but his first public appearance as an author was in 1824, when he published a translation of "Faust," with versions of popular lyrics from the works of Goethe, Schiller, and other German poets. He subsequently produced " Mediterranean Sketches" (London, 1843), containing "The Pilgrimage," a poem which records the author's tour in Palestine; " The two Sieges of Vienna by the Turks" (1847); "Guide to Northern Archaeology" (1848); " Life and Character of Wellington" (1852); and a number of poems and plays printed for private circulation. "The Pilgrimage," after having been withheld from general circulation for many years, was republished in 1856 with a number of additional poems. In 1853 Lord Ellesmere visited the United States.