CORNWALLIS, Frederick (1611-62)

Frederick Cornwallis, born into a family of distinguished courtiers, lost his father in infancy; he acquired an influential step-family in the Bacons of Culford when his wealthy widowed mother married the painter Sir Nathaniel Bacon (not to be confused with his namesake and kinsman, who served as Member of the Commons in several Parliaments). A protégé of George Villiers^†, duke of Buckingham, Cornwallis climbed the ladder of court preferment, was created a baronet in 1627 through the influence of Sir Thomas Meautys^‡, and was knighted in 1630. Private Corresp. of Lady Cornwallis, 25. A royalist veteran of the Short and Long Parliaments who controlled the electoral interest at Eye, Cornwallis was disabled from sitting in the Commons in 1642. He struggled financially because most of the Cornwallis estate was in the possession of his mother. His financial position was finally secured in 1659 when his mother died and when he also inherited the Culford estate. HP Commons 1660-90, ii. 134-5.

At the Restoration, Cornwallis was confirmed in post as treasurer of the royal household and appointed privy councillor. He made recommendations on a range of petitions for court patronage, including one in favour of the future ultra-royalist Lawrence Womock, who became bishop of St Davids. CSP Dom. 1660-1, pp. 132, 133, 219.

Securing the parliamentary seat of Eye for his son, Charles Cornwallis, later 2nd Baron Cornwallis, he took his own place in the Commons as Member for Ipswich on 29 Oct. 1660. He was elevated to the peerage in April 1661. On 14 May 1661, six days into the Cavalier Parliament, he took his seat in the House of Lords. In the Commons in 1641 he had voted with the minority against the attainder of Thomas Wentworth^†, earl of Strafford. Now he was named to the committee on the reversal of that attainder.

Cornwallis attended the Lords on 53 occasions in the 1661-2 session, just over one quarter of the sittings. During the session, he was named to 13 committees on a range of public and private bills, including the Westminster streets’ bill, the militia bill, legislation to regulate the navy, the bill to preserve the king’s person, the bill for pains and penalties on persons excepted from indemnity, and private legislation concerning Thomas Wentworth, earl of Cleveland. On 26 July he reported back from the committee on private legislation relating to Richard Gipps (a prominent Suffolk landowner) which involved land sale in Norfolk and Suffolk. It was predicted that on 11 July 1661, he would vote in favour of the claim of Aubrey de Vere, 20th earl of Oxford, to the great chamberlaincy. Cornwallis attended the House for the last time on 20 Nov. 1661, six weeks before the end of the session, having been given the proxy of Leicester Devereux, 6th Viscount Hereford, during July.

At a call of the House on 25 Nov. 1661, it was noted that Cornwallis was sick. Six weeks later, on 7 Jan. 1662, he died of apoplexy at the age of 51. Samuel Pepys^‡ observed the funeral procession in St Paul’s churchyard and commented only that Cornwallis was a ‘bold profane-talking man’. Pepys Diary, iii. 10. A contemporary elegy, in contrast, attributed to him the virtues of affability, humility and sweetness. London UL, ms 479, Elegy on the death of Frederick Cornwallis, Baron Cornwallis. Cornwallis’ services to the crown were acknowledged when his widow, on 28 Feb. 1662, was granted just over £500 as a free gift out of the privy seal for ‘secret services’. Although the Cornwallis estates were reputed to be worth an annual £2,000, Lady Cornwallis continued to profit from her husband’s service to the Crown. Two months after his death, she was granted an annual pension of £600 and in August 1663, she received a further grant of the monthly ‘diet’ for the full month in which her husband had died. CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 289, 356, 368; 1663-4, p. 229. More than eight years after the death of her husband, she was granted the debts and Suffolk estates of Sir Robert Drury, after his conviction for manslaughter. CSP Dom. 1670 and Addenda. 1660-70, p. 117. Cornwallis was buried at Brome in Suffolk and was succeeded by his son Charles.