{{short description|Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Richard Lovell Edgeworth | image = Portrait of Richard Lovell Edgeworth .PNG | caption = {{Circa|1800}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1744|5|31|df=y}} | birth_place = Bath, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1817|6|13|1744|5|31|df=y}} | death_place = Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland | spouses = * Anna Maria Elers (1743–1773) m. 1763 * Honora Sneyd (1751–1780) m. 1773 * Elizabeth Sneyd (1753–1797) m. 1780 * Frances Ann Beaufort (1769–1865) m. 1798{{sfn|Butler|1972}} | children = 22, including * Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) * William Edgeworth (1794–1829) * Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881) | alma_mater = Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Trinity College, Dublin }} thumb|Edgeworthstown House, Ireland thumb|Library at Edgeworthstown House 1888 [[File:Rees's Cyclopaedia - Richard Lovell Edgeworth's optical telegraph.png|thumb|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.<ref> {{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Abraham |editor-last=Rees |editor-link=Abraham Rees |encyclopedia=Cyclopædia |title=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://archive.org/details/cyclopaediaorun35rees |year=1802–1820 |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown |volume=35 |location=London |at=Unpaginated work: pages 9-11 of the article entry }}</ref>]] '''Richard Lovell Edgeworth''' (31 May 1744 – 13 June 1817) was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor. He had 22 children.
==Biography== Edgeworth was born in Pierrepont Street, Bath, England, son of Richard Edgeworth senior, and great-grandson of Sir Salathiel Lovell through his mother, Jane Lovell, granddaughter of Sir Salathiel. The Edgeworth family came to Ireland in the 1580s. Richard was descended from Francis Edgeworth, appointed joint Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in 1606, who inherited a fortune from his brother Edward Edgeworth, Bishop of Down and Connor.
A Trinity College, Dublin and Corpus Christi College, 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 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.{{sfn|Beach Combing|2011}} He described it as a "cart that carries its own road".
He was married four times, including to Honora Sneyd and to Frances Beaufort, older sister of Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy. Edgeworth and Francis Beaufort installed a semaphore line for Ireland. Edgeworth was a member of the Lunar Society, an informal organisation of Birmingham-based industrialists, scientists and intellectuals that met regularly to discuss and share ideas relating to their fields of interest. Other members included Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and James Watt.
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 Edgeworthstown on 13 June 1817.
==Family== He was the father of 22 children by his four wives{{sfn|Butler|1972|loc=p. 489}}
# Anna Maria Elers (1743–1773), of whom five 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. # Honora Sneyd (1751 – 1 May 1780), of whom two children #: Honora Edgeworth (1774–1790) #: Lovell Edgeworth (1775–1842), who inherited the property # 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 (his brother-in-law from his fourth marriage) in 1838 #: William Edgeworth (1794–1829), engineer.<ref>{{cite book|author=A. W. Skempton|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500-1830|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeOMfpYMOtYC&pg=PA207|access-date=3 May 2012|year=2002|publisher=Thomas Telford|isbn=978-0-7277-2939-2|page=207}}</ref> # Frances Ann Beaufort (1769–1865), botanical artist, daughter of Daniel Augustus Beaufort and Mary Waller, 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.<ref>Barbe, L. (2010), ''Francis Ysidro Edgeworth : A Portrait with Family and Friends'', translated from Catalan by M.C. Black. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited</ref> #: Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881), m. Christina Macpherson 1846, botanist.
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography== {{refbegin|30em}} * {{cite book|last1=Butler|first1=Marilyn|title=Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography|date=1972|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0198120179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B6VaAAAAMAAJ|access-date=31 March 2015}} * {{cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Desmond|author-link=desmond Clarke|title=The ingenious Mr. Edgeworth|date=1965|publisher=Oldbourne|url=https://archive.org/details/ingeniousmredgew0000clar|url-access=registration|access-date=31 March 2015}} * {{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Stanley James|last2=Boultwood|first2=Myrtle E. A.|title=A short history of educational ideas|date=1977|publisher=University Tutorial Press|isbn=9780723107675|edition=5th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4fE9AAAAYAAJ}} * {{cite journal|last1=Edgeworth|first1=Maria|title=RL Edgeworth Esq|journal=The Annual Register|date=1820|volume=Part II|pages=1215–1223|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1215|access-date=18 March 2015}} * {{cite web|last1=Priestman|first1=Judith|last2=Clapinson|first2=Mary|last3=Rogers|first3=Tim|title=Catalogue of the papers of Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), and the Edgeworth family, 17th-19th century|url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/edgeworth/edgeworth.html#edgeworth.A.1|publisher=University of Oxford, Bodleian Library|access-date=18 March 2015|date=1993|ref={{harvid|Bodleian|1993}}}} * {{Cite ODNB|id=8478|title=Edgeworth, Richard Lovell (1744–1817)|first=Christina Edgeworth |last=Colvin|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/8/101008478/|accessdate=18 March 2015|ref={{harvid|Colvin|2015}}}} * {{cite web|title=The Four Wives of Richard Lovell Edgewort & The Children of Richard Lovell Edgeworth|url=http://www.houseofedgeworthsc.com/englishirishedgeworths.htm|website=English-Irish Edgeworths|publisher=House of Edgeworth, South Carolina|access-date=24 March 2015|format=Images}} * {{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=Edgar E.|title=The Education of the Heart: The Correspondence of Rachel Mordecai Lazarus and Maria Edgeworth|date=1977|publisher=UNC Press|isbn=9781469606095|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONhXPb-nRu4C|access-date=24 March 2015}} * {{cite book|last1=O'Connor|first1=Maura|title=The Development of Infant Education in Ireland, 1838-1948: Epochs and Eras|date=2010|publisher=Lang|location=Bern|isbn=9783034301428|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9bid5ktk48C|access-date=31 March 2015}} * {{cite web|title=Edgeworth Papers. Collection List 40|url=http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/040_Edgeworth.pdf|publisher=National Library of Ireland|access-date=29 March 2015|pages=112}} * {{cite web|title=Edgeworth Collection (Longford County Library)|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/big-houses-of-ireland/edworthstown-house-co.-lo/edgeworth-collection/|website=Ask About Ireland|access-date=30 March 2015}} * {{cite web|last1=Beach Combing|title=Forgotten Anglo-Irish Inventor Anticipates the Modern Age|url=http://www.strangehistory.net/2011/07/21/forgotten-anglo-irish-inventor-anticipates-the-modern-age/|publisher=Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog|access-date=26 August 2015|date=21 July 2011}} {{refend}}
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author |id=7042| name=Richard Lovell Edgeworth}} * {{FadedPage|id=Edgeworth, Richard Lovell|name=Richard Lovell Edgeworth|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Richard Lovell Edgeworth}} * {{cite book | last = Edgeworth | first = Richard Lovell |author2=Maria Edgeworth | title= The Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth | publisher=Hunter, Cradock & Joy | location = London | year= 1820 | volume = 1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NKMDAAAAYAAJ}} * {{cite book | last = Edgeworth | first = Richard Lovell |author2=Maria Edgeworth | title= The Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth | publisher=Hunter, Cradock & Joy | location = London | year= 1821 | volume = 2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tacDAAAAYAAJ}} * {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241222205227/http://homepage.tinet.ie/~jmac/Fourwives.jpg |title=The four wives of Richard Edgeworth}} Portraits * [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw85197/The-Edgeworth-Family?LinkID=mp72089&search=sas&sText=Honora+Edgeworth&role=sit&rNo=0 The Edgeworth Family, National Portrait Gallery]
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{{s-start}} {{s-par|ie}} {{s-bef| before = Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, 1st Bt <br/> Francis Hardy }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for <br/> St Johnstown (County Longford) |alongside = William Moore | years = 1798 – 1801 }} {{s-aft| after = Parliament of the United Kingdom }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgeworth, Richard Lovell}} Category:1744 births Category:1817 deaths Category:People from Bath, Somerset Category:People from Lichfield Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Category:English inventors Category:English non-fiction writers Category:Irish MPs 1798–1800 Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Longford constituencies Category:Members of the Royal Irish Academy Category:Irish fellows of the Royal Society Category:English male non-fiction writers Category:People from Edgeworthstown Category:British fellows of the Royal Society