The original spelling is likely to have been Bridgwater, meaning the burg of Water, and the same as Bridgwater in Somerset (see archive reference 2/79 (http://www.isd.salford.ac.uk/specollect/bwa2.pdf)).
Francis Egerton, the third and last Duke of Bridgewater, was born on May 3rd 1736 and, escaping the family scourge of tuberculosis which carried off his siblings, he carved out for himself a niche in history as the Canal Duke.
Bridgewater was all set to marry the widowed Duchess of Hamilton when a scandal erupted involving her sister.
Elizabeth refused the Duke's ultimatum to disown her relative, and the duke stuck stubbornly to his guns and called off the marriage.
FRANCIS EGERTON ELLESMERE, 1ST Earl Of (1800-1857), born in London on the 1st of January 1800, was the second son of the ist duke of Sutherland.
He was known by his patronymic as Lord Francis Leveson Gower until 1833, when he assumed the surname of Egerton alone, having succeeded on the death of his father to the estates which the latter inherited from the duke of Bridgewater.
To the splendid collection of pictures which he inherited from his great-uncle, the 3rd duke of Bridgewater, he made numerous additions, and he built a noble gallery to which the public were allowed free access.
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