A carte-de-visite portrait of Francis Cowper, 7th Earl of Cowper (1934-1905) and his wife Lady Katrine Compton, Countess of Cowper, who he married in 1870, both in left profile. Vignette. Earl Cowper was a Liberal politician and became a Knight of the Garter in 1865 and was admitted to the Privy Council in 1871, promoted to Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1880 to 1882. He died in 1905 without heirs and his vast estate divided up between the descendants of his sisters.