Sir William Cornwallis of Brome (d. 1611)

Sir William Cornwallis of Brome (c. 1549– 13 November, 1611) was an English courtier and politician.^[1]

Life

He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, Comptroller of the Household to Queen Mary, and his wife Anne Jerningham. He became a courtier at around age 21, spent heavily to secure position there, and married by 1578.^[1]

Despite a family connection to Thomas Cecil, Cornwallis made little enough progress at court, and twice withdrew without regard for the loss of royal favour. In 1597 he was elected Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel, with the support of Cecil. When James I came to the throne he fared no better, and retired from public life in 1605.^[1]

Cornwallis spent freely, and entertained the Queen at his house in Highgate. He was knighted, by 1594. He laid on a performance by his friend Ben Jonson there, in 1604, for James I. He employed the composer Thomas Watson and other musical and literary men.^[2]

Cornwallis died on 13 November 1611.^[1]

Family

Cornwallis married, first, Lucy Neville, daughter of John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer and Lucy Somerset. After her death, he took as his second wife Jane Mewtas.^[1] The Cornwallis family lived at Brome Hall near Diss in Norfolk.^[3]

• Frederick Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis was the third son, and eldest surviving son, of Sir William, a son of his second marriage. His own second marriage was to Elizabeth Crofts, daughter of Sir Henry Crofts, Member of Parliament for Eye.^[4]

Of the daughters:

• Frances married Sir Edmund Withypole.^[5]
• Elizabeth married in 1596 Sir William Sandys, Member of Parliament for Winchester, who died in 1628.^[6] In 1630 she married Richard Lumley, 1st Viscount Lumley of Waterford.^[7]
• Cornelia married Sir Richard Fermor of Somerton.^[8]
• Anne in 1609 married Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll.^[9]

There are sources that give Thomas Cornwallis, Member of Parliament for Suffolk in 1625, as a son of Sir William by his first wife.^[10] The History of Parliament, on the other hand, gives his father as John Cornwallis of Earl Soham.^[11] Sir William Cornwallis, the essayist, was a nephew who is sometimes described as "the younger" to differentiate him from this William Cornwallis, who is often described as "the elder".^[12][13]

Notes

1. "Cornwallis, Sir William (c.1549–1611), of Brome Hall, Suff. and London, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 12 July 2016.
2. H. R. Woudhuysen (23 May 1996). Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, 1558-1640. Clarendon Press. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-19-159102-0.
3. H. R. Woudhuysen (23 May 1996). Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, 1558-1640. Clarendon Press. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-19-159102-0.
4. "Cornwallis, Sir Frederick, 1st Bt. (1611–62), of Culford, Suff., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 12 July 2016.
5. Vivian Salmon, The Other Elizabeth Drury: a Tragic Marriage in the Family of John Donne's Patron, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology 29, pp. 198–207(1963) (PDF), at p. 201
6. "Sandys, Sir William (c.1575–1628), of Winchester, Hants and Clerkenwell Green, Mdx., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 12 July 2016.
7. Hopper, Andrew J. "Lumley, Elizabeth, Viscountess Lumley of Waterford". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66528. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
8. James Charles Blomfield (4 January 2011). History of the present deanery of Bicester, Oxon. British Library, Historical Print Editions. p. 122.
9. Marshall, Rosalind K. "Cornwallis, Anne". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/68036. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
10. John Burke (1832). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn and R. Bentley. pp. 291–.
11. "Cornwallis, Thomas I (1579–1627), of Earl Soham and Ipswich, Suff., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 12 July 2016.
12. Hebel, J. William (ed.). "Notes" on Cornwallis, Prose of the English Renaissance, Ardent Media, 1952
13. Kincaid, Arthur (2004). "Cornwallis, Sir William, the younger". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6345. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)