Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. (Anthony) Evelyn Melbourne Ashley (24 July 1836 16 November 1907) was an author and a British Liberal politician. Ashley was the third child and second son of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Emily Cowper, eldest daughter of Peter Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper and sister of William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was Private Secretary to Lord Palmerston from 1858-1865 and was a Barrister on the Oxford Circuit from 1865-1874. He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Poole from 1874-1880 and for Isle of Wight from 1880-1885. He held office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1880-1882, as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1882-1885. He was an Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioner from 1880-1885. He was a Verderer of the New Forest. Hewas appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1891. On 28 July 1866 he married Sybella Farquhar. They had two children.