taining his majority he
became engaged to the beautiful duchess of Hamilton, but her refusal to
give up the acquaintance of her sister, Lady Coventry, led to the breaking
off of the match. Thereupon the duke broke up his London establishment, and
retiring to his estate at Worsley, devoted himself to the making of canals.
The navigable canal from Worsley to Manchester which he projected for the
transport of the coal obtained on his estates was (with the exception of
the Sankey canal) the first great undertaking of the kind executed in Great
Britain in modern times. The construction of this remarkable work, with its
famous aqueduct across the Irwell, was carried out by James Brindley, the
celebrated engineer. The completion of this canal led the duke to undertake
a still 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 the execution of the latter work
were still more formidable than those of the Worsley canal, involving, as
they did, the carrying of the canal over Sale Moor Moss. But the genius of
Brindley, his engineer, proved superior to all obstacles, and though at one
period of the undertaking the financial resources of the duke were almost
exhausted, the work was carried to a triumphant conclusion. The untiring
perseverance displayed by the duke in surmounting the various difficulties
that retarded the accomplishment of his projects, together with the
pecuniary restrictions he imposed on himself in order to supply the
necessary capital (at one time he reduced his personal expenses to L400 a
year), affords an instructive example of that energy and self-denial on
which the success of great undertakings so much depends. Both these canals
were completed when the duke was only thirty-six years of age, and the
remainder of his life was spent in extending them and in improving his
estates; and during the latter years of his life he derived a princely
income from the success of his enterprise. Though a steady supporter of
Pitt's administration, he never took any prominent part in politics.

He died unmarried on the 8th of March 1803, when the ducal title became
extinct, but the earldom of Bridgewater passed to a cousin, John William
Egerton, who became 7th earl. By his will he devised his canals and estates
on trust, under which his nephew, the marquess of Stafford (afterwards
first duke of Sutherl