British industrialist and aristocrat. He commissioned the first canal in Britain, and the modern world. Born into nobility, he was the youngest son of the first Duke of Bridgewater and was known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748. He inherited the title Duke of Bridgewater, and was also titled Marquess of Brackley, Earl of Ellesmere, sixth Earl of Bridgewater and Baron Egerton. Shortly after attaining his majority, he became engaged to the society beauty the Dowager Duchess of Hamilton, but her refusal to give up the acquaintance of her sister, Lady Coventry, led to the breaking off of the marriage. Thereupon the Duke broke up his London establishment, and retired to his estate at Worsley where he devoted himself to the making of canals. A pioneer of canal construction, he is famed as the "father of British inland navigation", who commissioned the Bridgewater Canal—the first true canal in Britain, and the modern world. The canal was built for him by his agent John Gilbert with advice from the engineer James Brindley to service his coal mines at Worsley, in Lancashire. The Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester is usually cited as the first modern British canal as opposed to a river navigation. The completion of his first canal led the duke to undertake a more ambitious work. In 1762 he obtained parliamentary powers to provide an improved waterway between Liverpool and Manchester by means of a canal. The difficulties encountered in its execution were still more formidable than those of the Worsley canal, involving carrying it across Sale Moor Moss. Fortunately, the genius of Gilbert, his agent and Brindley, his engineer, proved superior to all obstacles although at one period the duke's financial resources were almost exhausted, the work was carried to a triumphant conclusion, with both canals being completed by the time he was thirty-six years of age. The remainder of his life was spent in extending them and in improving his estates. During the latter years of his life, he derived a princely income from the success of his enterprise. As he did not marry, the dukedom expired with him.