Constituency Dates
Eye 9 Dec. 1743 – 1747, 26 Jan. 1747 – Apr. 1749
Westminster 16 Jan. 1753 – 18 Mar. 1762
Family and Education
b. 22 Feb. 1713, 6th s. of Charles Cornwallis, M.P. 4th Baron Cornwallis, by Lady Charlotte Butler, da. and h. of Richard, 1st Earl of Arran [I], bro. of Hon. James, John and Stephen Cornwallis. educ. Eton 1725-8. m. 17 Mar. 1753, Mary, da. of Charles, 2nd Visct. Townshend, s.p.
Offices Held

Ensign 1730, lt. 1731; capt. 8 Ft. 1734; maj. 20 Ft. 1742, lt.-col. 1745, col. 1749; col. 40 Ft. 1750 – 52; col. 24 Ft. 1752 – d.; maj.-gen. 1757, lt.-gen. 1760.

Groom of the bedchamber to the King 1747 – 63; lt.-gov. Nova Scotia 1749 – 52; gov. Gibraltar 1762 – d.

Address
Main residence: Essington, Herts.
biography text

Returned in 1743 for the family borough of Eye, Edward Cornwallis voted for the Hanoverians, 18 Jan. 1744, spoke for the Government on a vote for extraordinary charges in respect of troops in British pay, 20 Mar. following,1Yorke’s parl. jnl. Parl Hist. xiii. 681-3. and was classed in 1746 as Old Whig. Vacating his seat in 1749 on his appointment to the new colony of Nova Scotia ‘for two or three years at most’, he applied in September 1751 for permission to resign his post.2T. B. Atkins, Selections from Public Docs. of Nova Scotia, 645. Returning to England, he was asked to stand for Westminster at the express desire of the King. Returned unopposed with the support of the Duke of Bedford,3Edw. Cornwallis to Bedford, 7 Dec. 1752, Bedford to Cornwallis, 8 Dec. 1752, Bedford mss. one of the principal landlords in the borough, he spoke on 19 Feb. 1753 in a debate on Nova Scotia, giving ‘a short and sensible account of the colony’. Horace Walpole describes him as a ‘brave, sensible young man, and of great temper and good nature’.4Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 63, 307.

He died 14 Jan. 1776.

Author
R.R.S.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
Notes
  • 1. Yorke’s parl. jnl. Parl Hist. xiii. 681-3.
  • 2. T. B. Atkins, Selections from Public Docs. of Nova Scotia, 645.
  • 3. Edw. Cornwallis to Bedford, 7 Dec. 1752, Bedford to Cornwallis, 8 Dec. 1752, Bedford mss.
  • 4. Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 63, 307.