Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, was a British Tory politician and philanthropist who lived from 1801 to 1885 and became known as the Poor Man's Earl for his social reform work. In 1833 he brought a Factory Act before Parliament to restrict child labor in the cotton and woollen industries; the version that passed set thirteen as the minimum working age, short of the eighteen he had sought. He was a driving force behind the Mines and Collieries Act of 1842, which barred women and children from underground work in coal mines, and after decades of failed attempts he secured the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1875, which ended the use of child chimney sweeps through licensing and police enforcement. His parliamentary reform career spanned forty four years.