Piers Edgcumbe (politician, around 1610)

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Piers Edgcumbe (around 1610 - January 6, 1667 ) was an English military man and politician who was elected four times as a member of the House of Commons .

Origin and youth

Piers Edgcumbe came from the family Edgcumbe , one of the leading families of the gentry of Cornwall . He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Edgcumbe and his second wife Mary Cotteel . He studied at St John's College , Cambridge in 1626 . Still a minor, he ran for Newport in the 1628 general election, thanks largely to the support of his uncles Sir John Speccott and Ambrose Manaton . The election was controversial, and Sir John Eliot , of all people , a rival of his father, incriminated Edgcumbe's contestant while reviewing the election process. This resulted in Edgcumbe being re-elected as a member of the borough on April 14, 1628 . In the House of Commons, however, he was hardly present, as he received permission for a three-year stay abroad in May 1629. Probably from June 1629 he studied at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands . From 1630 to 1631 he apparently undertook a nine-month trip through France and Spain before studying at the University of Padua from 1632 to 1633 . Then he returned to England.

Role during the English Civil War and during the Commonwealth

Royalist MP at the start of the Civil War

When Edgcumbe married in 1636, his father left the old Cotehele family estate to him . After his father's death in 1639, he took over management of the rest of the family's estates and moved to Mount Edgcumbe House . After the death of his uncle Thomas Coteel in 1640 he inherited his lands in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight . In April 1640 he ran for the Short Parliament and in November 1640 for the Long Parliament each successfully for Borough Camelford . At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the royal party in 1642 and at the end of 1642 had Mount Edgcumbe House occupied by a royalist garrison, which he commanded as a colonel. In view of the strategically important but exposed location of Mount Edgcumbe near Plymouth , the most important base for parliamentary troops in south-west England, Edgcumbe moved his family's residence back to Cotehele. When the royal troops successfully advanced to south-west England in 1643, Edgcumbe's cousin Alexander Carew , who commanded the strategically important fortress island of St Nicholas in the approach to Plymouth for the parliamentary troops , contacted him. However, Carew's planned change of sides was betrayed, he was arrested, taken to London and eventually executed. In January 1644 Edgcumbe was expelled from the House of Commons and his offices were stripped from him, whereupon he took part in the so-called Oxford Parliament convened by King Charles I a little later .

Fight for Mount Edgcumbe and surrender

On May 15, 1644, Mount Edgcumbe was attacked by about 300 parliament soldiers who had previously looted villages on the Rame Peninsula . The defenders were able to repel the attack, but the mansion was badly damaged. When the victorious parliamentary troops advanced into Cornwall in 1645, Edgcumbe surrendered in early March to Fairfax , commander of the parliamentary troops. He agreed with Fairfax to pay a moderate fine of £ 1,275, but was not prosecuted for his support of the king and was allowed to keep his possessions.

Political inactivity during the Commonwealth of England

There was considerable opposition to this unofficial agreement, reached by Fairfax without the approval of Parliament, but Edgcumbe no longer supported the king until the end of the civil war. In 1651, the terms of Edgcumbe's surrender were finally confirmed, but in the same year he had to answer before the State Council on suspicion of belonging to a royalist conspiracy. This could not be proven, but until the end of the Commonwealth Edgcumbe travel restrictions were imposed. He concentrated on the administration of his estates, had Cotehole House rebuilt and took over the post of deputy governor of the mining company Mines Royal Company from 1654 to 1657 .

Renewed political activity after the Stuart Restoration

After the Stuart Restoration , Edgcumbe quickly regained its local political importance. In 1660 he was again Justice of the Peace of Devon and Cornwall and before 1662 he was Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. As a royalist, according to the provisions of the Long Parliament, he was not yet up for election in the 1660 general election. From 1660 to 1661 he served as sheriff of Cornwall, so that he was not allowed to run for the general election in 1661. In a by-election in early 1662 in Borough Newport, however, he was able to prevail against Henry Ford , a friend of the influential courtier Thomas Clifford . However, there is no evidence of his activity in the House of Commons, and on December 15, 1666, he was warned in writing to attend the meetings. Edgcumbe, however, had already drawn up his will on May 12, 1666 and died in early 1667. He was buried in Calstock .

Winifred Edgcumbe, one of the daughters of Piers Edgcumbe, as Countess of Coventry. Painting by Otto Hoynck, between 1686 and 1690

Family and offspring

Edgcumbe had married on June 6, 1636, Mary Glanville , daughter of Sir John Glanville of Devon and his wife Winifred Bourchier . His wife brought the stately sum of £ 3000 as a dowry into the marriage. With her he had three sons and two daughters, including:

His younger son Francis was killed in a duel in 1665 at the age of 18. After his death, Edgcumb's eldest son Richard inherited his estate. His widow kept Cotehele as a widow's residence.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The National Trust: Antony, Cornwall . The National Trust 2010. ISBN 978-1-84359-015-6 , p. 30
  2. ↑ Cynthia Gaskell Brown: Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park: Guidebook , Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park, Torpoint 2003, p. 14
  3. ↑ Rachel Hunt: Cotehele, Cornwall. A souvenir guide . National Trust, Swindon, ISBN 978-1-84359-428-4 , p. 20
  4. ↑ Rachel Hunt: Cotehele, Cornwall. A souvenir guide . National Trust, Swindon, ISBN 978-1-84359-428-4 , p. 20
personal data
SURNAME Edgcumbe, Piers
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English military and politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1610
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1667