Emily Ashley-Cooper, Countess of Shaftesbury

Emily Caroline Catherine Frances Ashley-Cooper, Countess of Shaftesbury (6 November 1810 – 15 October 1872), formerly Lady Emily Cowper, was the wife of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, and the mother of the 8th earl.

The daughter of Peter Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper, and his wife Emily, It was widely believed that her natural father was Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, whom her mother married in 1839, following Earl Cowper's death.

Emily was the second child of the Cowpers, after her brother, George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper. Her younger brothers were William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple, and The Honorable Charles Cowper. Emily's younger sister, Francess, became a viscountess.

She married Shaftesbury, then known as Lord Ashley and the heir of Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, on 10 June 1830. They had ten children: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury (1831–1886), who married Lady Harriet Chichester, daughter of George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall, and had children. Hon. (Anthony) Francis Henry Ashley-Cooper (1833–1849) Hon. (Anthony) Maurice William Ashley-Cooper, third son (1835–1855) Lady Edith Florence Ashley-Cooper (1847–1913) Hon. (Anthony) Cecil Ashley-Cooper (1849–1932)

In 1851, Ashley-Cooper succeeded to the earldom of Shaftesbury, at which point his wife became countess. Several of the couple's children suffered ill-health, and the news that Lady Constance's life depended on her going abroad for the winter, as well as the illness of her youngest son, Cecil, caused the countess to fall ill also.

The countess died at the couple's town house in Grosvenor Square, London, aged 61. Lady Constance died two months later in London.