BRIDGEWATER, FRANCIS ITENRY EnEirrox, eighth Earl of (1756-1829). The son of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham. and grandnenbew of the first Duke of Bridgewater. He was born in London, November 11, 175G, and succeeded his brother as Earl in 1823. He was educated at Oxford, becoming fellow of All Souls College, 1780. The same year he became prebendary of Durham, in 1781 rector of Middle, and in 1797 of \Vhitchureh, both in Shropshire. and he held these preferments till his death. He was prince of the holy Roman Empire. He was very eccen tric. for his home in Paris, where he lived the lat ter part of his life, was filled with cats and dogs, some dressed up as men and women, and he drove them out in his carriage and fed them at his table. When he died unmarried, in Paris, Febru ary 11, 1329, the title became extinct. By his last will, dated February 25, 1825, he left £8000, in lested in the public funds, to be paid to the au thor of the best treatise On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Crea tion, illustrating such work by such arguments as the variety and formation of God's creatures in the animal and vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the effect of digestion, the construction of the hand of man. and by discoveries, ancient and mod
ern, in arts, scienees, and the whole extent of lit erature. The then president of the Royal Society of London, Davies Gilbert, to whom the selection of the author was left, with the advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Lon don, and a noble friend of the deceased Earl, ju diciously resolved that, instead of being given to one man for one work, the money should be allot ted to eight different persons for eight separate treatises, though all connected with the same primary theme. (See BRIDGEWATER TREATISES.) He wrote himself a number of books.biographical, historical, and scientific. He left his manuscripts to the British with £12,000 to keep up the collection. The MSS. relate mostly to French and Italian history and literature.