Francis Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper

Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper, was born on 11 June 1834 and died on 18 July 1905. He was known as Viscount Fordwich from 1837 to 1856 and was a member of the British Liberal political party. Cowper served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1880 to 1882.

He was the eldest son of George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper, and Anne de Grey, who was the 7th holder of the barony of Lucas of Crudwell. Anne de Grey was the daughter of Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey. Cowper was educated at Harrow School followed by the University of Oxford. His military service included a commission as cornet in the Yorkshire Hussars starting on 19 February 1852. On 22 November 1855, he was appointed as a deputy lieutenant of Kent by his father.

Cowper inherited his noble titles in 1856 upon his father's death, becoming the 7th Earl Cowper. His political career included serving under Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, the government chief whip in the House of Lords, from 1871 to 1874. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1871 and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1865. From 1861 until his death in 1905, he held the position of Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire. Additionally, he served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Kent.

In terms of peerages, Cowper succeeded in obtaining a reversal of the attainder of the Scottish lordship of Dingwall and the English barony of Butler in 1871, which had been under attainder since 1715. This allowed him to become the 4th Lord Dingwall and the 3rd Baron Butler. In 1880, he inherited the title of 8th Baron Lucas from his mother.

Cowper's wealth was notable; his estate was estimated to be worth over £1 million at his death, a level of wealth uncommon among British residents of the time. His assets included nearly 38,000 acres of land. His wealth was estimated by Sir Leo Chiozza Money to be represented by only a few individuals in that era. Relative to American wealth figures, by the start of World War I, figures such as John D. Rockefeller had become the world's first billionaires.

He married Lady Katrine Compton, daughter of William Compton, 4th Marquess of Northampton, in 1870. The marriage was childless. Upon his death in July 1905 at age 71, several of his titles became extinct, including the baronetcy of Ratlingcourt, the barony of Cowper, the viscountcy of Fordwich, and the earldom of Cowper. His nephew, Auberon, succeeded him in the barony of Lucas of Crudwell and the lordship of Dingwall.

At the time of his death, his probate value was recorded as £1,326,681, equivalent to approximately £179.9 million in 2023 currency. Due to his childless status and lack of male-line descendants of the first Earl Cowper, his estate primarily devolved to the issue of his three married sisters: Lady Florence Herbert, Lady Adine Fane, and Lady Amabel Kerr. Florence’s son, Auberon, inherited his uncle's titles of Lord Lucas of Crudwell and Lord Dingwall, as well as part of the estates, including Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. Lady Adine's daughter, Ethel, inherited Panshanger in Hertfordshire, the Cowper family’s main country seat. The descendants of Lady Amabel Kerr later inherited the Melbourne estate, including Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire and Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire.