CORNWALLIS, Charles, Visct. Brome (1774-1823).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

6 Nov. 1795 - 1796
1796 - 5 Oct. 1805

Family and Education

b. 19 Oct. 1774, o.s. of Charles Cornwallis, fist Mq. Cornwallis, by Jemima Tulikens, da. of Capt. James Jones, 3 Ft. Gds. educ. Eton c.1783-4, 1786-9; St. John’s, Camb. 1792; travelled on the Continent 1792, 1794. m. 17 Apr. 1797, Lady Louisa Gordon, da. of Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon [S], 5da. suc. fa. as 2nd Mq. 5 Oct. 1805.

Offices Held

Master of the buckhounds 1807-d.

Capt. Suff. yeomanry 1795-1802; col. W. Suff. militia 1802-d.

Biography

The Marquess Cornwallis was not eager for his only son to follow him into the army, where he had had ‘years of heartaches, for moments of gratification’. Besides, Brome was of delicate health. Yet he proceeded to the Continent before attending university and subsequently to Germany where, had he been fit for the army, he would have gone to a military academy. As soon as he came of age, a vacancy was created for him on the family interest in the borough of Eye. He held the seat only until the dissolution of 1796, when his father put him up for the county, to fill a vacuum in the representation.

Brome, who was expected to support Pitt’s administration, proved a reluctant Member, preferring a country life to London. No speech of his is known. He voted for Pitt’s assessed taxes, 4 Jan. 1798. He visited his father in Dublin. In November 1801 he accompanied his father to France for the armistice, taking a dim view of what he found there, and met Buonaparte, whom he had sardonically designated as his father’s successor in Ireland. He attended the meeting of the new Parliament in 1802 and was of the civil list committee in 1803. Addington promised his father an office for Brome, such as the reversion to a tellership of the Exchequer, but there was no vacancy. Instead he became colonel of the East Suffolk militia and accompanied them to Hull in the summer of 1804. Early in 1805 his father had to persuade him to attend the opening of Parliament ‘after which he may return’ [to Suffolk]. Listed an adherent of Pitt in September 1804 and July 1805, he rallied to ministers against the censure of Melville, 8 Apr. 1805. Later that year he succeeded to the marquessate. He was appointed master of the buckhounds in 1807. He died 9 Aug. 1823.

Kent AO, Cornwallis mss C1, Cornwallis to bp. of Lichfield, 13 July 1791, 17 July 1792, 9 Mar. 1793; Cornwallis Corresp. ii. 52-3, 220, 256, 306; iii. 24, 362, 383, 410, 418, 494, 498, 499, 525; Leveson Gower, i. 319; Glenbervie Diaries, i. 170.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Winifred Stokes

Notes