ACTON, SIR JOHN FRANCIS EDWARD, BART. (1736-1811), prime minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV., was the son of Edward Acton, a physician at Besancon, and was born there in 1736, succeeding to the English title and estates in 1791, on the death of his cousin in the third degree, Sir Richard Acton of Aldenham hall, Shropshire. He served in the navy of Tuscany, and in 1775 commanded a frigate in the joint expedition of Spain and Tuscany against Algiers. In 1779 Queen Maria Carolina of Naples persuaded her brother the grand-duke Leopold of Tuscany to allow Acton to reorganize the Neapolitan navy. He became commander-in-chief of both services, minister of finance, and finally prime minister. His policy was devised in concert with the English ambassador, Sir William Hamilton, and aimed at sub stituting the influence of Austria and Great Britain for that of Spain, at Naples, and consequently involved open opposition to France and the French party in Italy. In Dec. 1798 he shared the flight of the king and queen. For the reign of terror which followed the downfall of the Parthenopean republic, five months later, Acton has been held responsible. In 1804 he was for a short time deprived of the reins of government at the demand of France ; but he was soon restored to his former position, which he held till, in Feb. 1806, on the entry of the French into Naples, he had to flee with the royal family into Sicily. He died at Palermo on Aug. 12, 181i.
He left three children, the elder son, Sir Richard, being the father of the first Lord Acton. The second son CHARLES JANUA RIUS EDWARD (1803-1847), after being educated in England and taking his degree at Magdalene college, Cambridge, in 1823, en tered the Academia Ecclesiastica at Rome. He became the secre tary of the congregation of the Disciplina Regolare, and auditor of the Apostolic Chamber under Gregory XVI., by whom he was made a cardinal in 1842. Cardinal Acton helped to secure the increase, in 1840, of the English vicariates-general to eight, which paved the way for the restoration of the hierarchy by Pius IX. in 185o. He died on June 23,