author
Baron George Agar Ellis Dover
1797–1833
A young British peer with a deep love of literature and the arts, he moved easily between politics, scholarship, and cultural life. Best remembered as the 1st Baron Dover, he also played a part in the early history of Britain’s National Gallery.
1 Audiobook
The True History of the State Prisoner, commonly called the Iron Mask Extracted from Documents in the French Archives
by Baron George Agar Ellis Dover
About the author
Born in 1797, George James Welbore Agar-Ellis was the only son of the 2nd Viscount Clifden and was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered Parliament at a young age as a Whig and later became George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover, serving briefly as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in Lord Grey’s government.
He is often described as a politician and a man of letters, and that mix shaped his reputation. Alongside his public career, he wrote and edited literary works and was closely involved in cultural causes. One of the achievements most often linked to him is his support for the parliamentary purchase of John Julius Angerstein’s collection, a step that helped lead to the founding of the National Gallery.
Agar-Ellis died in 1833, still only in his thirties. Though his life was short, he left behind the image of a thoughtful public figure whose interests in books, history, and art mattered as much as politics.