of his grandfather, father, and father-in-law, as well as St Giles House and the vast holdings of the Shaftesbury Estate. Anthony Ashley-Cooper Anthony Ashley-Cooper's parents both died before he reached the age of ten years. At their death, Anthony inherited extensive estates, after consolidating the holdings of both the Ashley and Cooper families in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset. The vast properties, lands, and holdings effectively solidified the Ashley-Cooper family as one of the wealthiest in England. The family also owns Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles. After the death of his parents, Ashley-Cooper and his siblings lived with Sir Daniel Norton, one of his Trustees, at Southwick, who was also a trusted friend of King Charles I. When Sir Daniel Norton died in 1635, the siblings went to live with their uncle, Edward Tooker of New Sarum (now Salisbury). Edward Tooker was the husband of the children's aunt, Martha Cooper, and another Trustee of Sir John Cooper's estate. Much of Ashley-Cooper's inheritance was squandered owing to the incompetence of the men entrusted with responsibility for guarding his interests. In the end, the uncertainties of Ashley-Cooper's childhood shaped the man. He grew into one of the most influential statesmen of the late 17th century. Ashley-Cooper was married three times. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Lord Thomas Coventry. On 27 July 1646, she miscarried a son when her brother, John, jokingly threw her against a bed. She had been pregnant 20 weeks at the time of miscarriage. To the great sorrow of both parents, she miscarried a second pregnancy on 29 March 1647. She was 11 weeks along in the pregnancy. The following year, in November, she gave birth to a stillborn son, just two weeks short of the scheduled delivery date. On 10 July 1649, six weeks short of delivery her fourth child, she complained of a headache and had seizure. Unable to speak, she went to bed and died the next morning. Married just under ten years, she had been pregnant four times, yet not one child was born alive. On 25 April 1650, nine months after the death of his first wife, Shaftesbury married Lady Frances Cecil, daughter of the royalist, David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter. A few days before this marriage, Shaftesbury entered in his diary: "I laid the first stone of my house at St Giles's." In 1651, Countess Shaftesbury