Richard Edgcumbe, 1st Baron Edgcumbe

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Richard Edgcumbe after a contemporary portrait

Richard Edgcumbe, 1st Baron Edgcumbe (* before April 23, 1680 in Mount Edgcumbe House , † November 22, 1758 ) was a British nobleman and politician who was elected sixteen times as a member of the House of Commons .

Origin and youth

Richard Edgcumbe came from the noble Edgcumbe family , one of the most respected families of the gentry of Cornwall . He was the third but only surviving son of Richard Edgcumbe and his wife Anne Montagu . He was baptized on April 23, 1680. His father died in 1688. After the death of his older brother Piers in 1694, he became the heir of his father's extensive estates in south-west England. Edgcumbe studied from May 25, 1697 at Trinity College , Cambridge . In 1698 he completed his studies as a Master of Arts .

Political career

Walpole supporters in the House of Commons

In a by-election in June 1701, Edgcumbe was elected Knight of the Shire for Cornwall. In 1702 he received the title of Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. In the general election in December 1701, however, he did not run again as Knight of the Shire, but was elected as a member of Parliament for the Borough of St Germans . In the election in June 1702 he ran successfully for the Borough of Plympton Alder . In Plympton Alder he was re-elected in each of the following eleven elections, so that he represented the borough in the House of Commons until 1734. Politically, Edgcumbe supported the Whigs and especially Robert Walpole , one of whose closest friends he was. When Walpole became Lord High Treasurer , Edgcumbe was named Lord of the Treasury on June 22, 1716 . When Walpole resigned after a cabinet dispute in April 1717, Edgcumbe resigned and joined the opposition.

Member of the Walpoles Government

When Walpole became a member of the government again in 1720 and a little later became the first British Prime Minister , he rewarded Edgcumbe's loyalty. Edgcumbe was initially Lord of the Treasury again in 1720, until he took over the office of Vice-Treasurer for the income of the Crown from Ireland in 1724 . As Receiver-General and Paymaster General , he managed the government's revenue and had an annual income of around £ 3,000. Edgcumbe remained a loyal supporter of Walpole. He succeeded in the general election in 1727 that supporters of the government were elected as members of parliament in all the boroughs of Cornwall. As the most important member of the Cornish government, he also led the election campaign in 1734, in which he himself no longer ran for Plympton Alder, but successfully ran for Lostwithiel . In the next few years, however, Edgcumbe acted politically unsuccessful in Cornwall, which is why all the boroughs in Cornwall were won by opposition candidates in the general election in 1741. Edgcumbe himself was re-elected as MP for Plympton Alder in Devon , but after Walpole's resignation in early 1742, he was replaced in his offices on April 20, 1742 by William Pulteney .

Elevation to Baron Edgcumbe

On the day of his replacement, Edgcumbe was promoted to Baron Edgcumbe , making him a member of the House of Lords and leaving the House of Commons. This prevented him from being questioned in the House of Commons by the new government about Walpole's practices in the past elections. In January 1743 Edgcumbe became a member of the government again as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster . In January 1744 he became Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, and on January 25, 1744, by order of King George II, he became a member of the Privy Council . However, he owes this primarily to the fact that he was one of the few politicians who were even smaller than the short king. At the beginning of the Second Jacobite Uprising in 1745, Edgcumbe was appointed colonel and, together with eleven other peers, commissioned to set up an infantry regiment each to help put down the uprising.

Until his death Edgcumbe, together with Hugh Boscawen, 2nd Viscount Falmouth , kept considerable influence on the general election in numerous boroughs, especially in Cornwall. In February 1755 he was promoted to major general. After resigning as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he was appointed Judge of the Royal Forests north of Trent on January 24, 1758 .

family

Edgcumbe had married on March 12, 1715 Matilda Furnese (around 1699-1721), a daughter of Henry Furnese, 1st Baronet from Waldershare in Kent and his wife Matilda Vernon . With her he had two sons:

Edgcumbe had not remarried after his wife's early death. He was buried in Maker's church after his death . He inherited his eldest son Richard, to whom he allegedly bequeathed a cash fortune of £ 20,000 in addition to extensive family estates.

Others

The Edgecombe County in North Carolina was named after him. Horace Walpole , who was critical of his father, described Edgcumbe as one of the most honest men in the world, despite his closeness to his father.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cynthia Gaskell Brown: Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park: Guidebook , Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park, Torpoint 2003, p. 20
  2. ↑ Sir Lewis Namier: EDGCUMBE, Hon. Richard (1716-61). (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1754-1790). Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Edgcumbe
1742-1758 		Richard Edgcumbe
personal data
SURNAME Edgcumbe, Richard, 1st Baron Edgcumbe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richard Edgecumbe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: baptized April 23, 1680
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1758