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CORNWALLIS, THOMAS (1663–1731), commissioner of lotteries, fourth son of Charles, second lord Cornwallis, by his wife Margaret Playsted, was born in Suffolk on 31 July 1663. In April 1676 he, together with his elder brother William, was admitted a fellow-commoner of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, under the tutorship of Mr. Lane. To the latter's inspiration are possibly due some creditable Latin elegiacs signed by Cornwallis, which appeared in the ‘Epithalamium … ab Academia Cantabrigiensi decantatum,’ on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Princess Mary (Camb. 1677). On leaving Cambridge, where he apparently took no degree, Cornwallis obtained a commission in the guards, and some years later succeeded his brother Frederick in the command of the independent company in Jersey. In 1709 the system of parliamentary lotteries was introduced, and Cornwallis is credited with having been the original projector. The scheme was briefly as follows: 150,000 tickets were to be sold at 10l. apiece, making 1,500,000l., the principal of which was to be sunk and 9 per cent. allowed on it during thirty-two years: 3,750 of the tickets were prizes varying in value from 1,000l. to 5l. per annum; the remainder were blanks, of which there were therefore thirty-nine to one prize, but each blank was entitled to 14s. per annum for thirty-two years. This scheme proved a great popular success, and was the foundation of all the subsequent state lotteries, which continued to be set on foot in every session of parliament till 1824. Cornwallis was annually appointed a commissioner of lotteries up to the year of his death, which occurred in St. James's Street on 29 Dec. 1731 (Gent. Mag. 1731, p. 540).

Cornwallis was twice married; first, to Jane, widow of Colonel Vernam, and secondly, to Anne, daughter of Sir Hugh Owen and widow of John Barlow of Laurenny, Pembrokeshire. 

CORNWALLIS, WILLIAM (d. 1631?), knight and essayist, elder son of Sir Charles Cornwallis [q. v.] by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Farnham of Fincham in Norfolk, married on 26 Aug. 1595 Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Parker of Erwarton, Suffolk, by whom he had his eldest son, Charles, and other children. He was M.P. for Lostwithiel in 1597 and for Orford in 1604 and 1614. He appears to have been knighted in 1602. He was a friend of Ben Jonson, and employed him to write ‘Penates, or a Private Entertainment for the King and Queen,’ on their visit to his house at Highgate on May-day, 1604. His essays are in imitation of Montaigne, but lack the sprightliness of the French author. Cornwallis spent his life in studious retirement. His works are: 1. ‘Discourses upon Seneca the tragedian,’ 1601, 16mo, 1631. 2. ‘Essayes by Sir W. Cornewaleys’ (E. Mattes), 1st part 1600, 2nd part 1610, 16mo and 12mo, 1616 4to, two parts with a frontispiece 1617, and 1632 small 8vo, with the essays upon Seneca, 1631. 3. ‘The Miraculous and Happy Union between England and Scotland,’ 1604, 4to. 4. ‘Essays on certain Paradoxes,’ 2nd edit. enlarged twenty-four leaves, not paged, 1617, 4to; one of these essays, ‘The Praise of King Richard III,’ is reprinted in the ‘Somers Tracts,’ iii. 316, edit. 1810. 5. ‘Essays or Encomiums,’ 1616, 1626. 6. Verses in Sylvester's ‘Lacrymæ Lacrymarum’ on the death of the Prince of Wales, and lines on the monument of Lucy, lady Latimer, in Hackney Church; this lady was the wife of Sir William Cornwallis (died 1611), uncle of the essayist, who is therefore generally described as the younger. In the 1632 edition of the ‘Essays,’ published after the author's death, there is a print of two men sitting and writing, supposed to represent Sir Charles and Sir William Cornwallis, his son. 

CORNWALLIS, WILLIAM (1744–1819), admiral, fourth son of Charles, fifth lord and first earl Cornwallis, was born on 20 Feb. 1743–4, and entered the navy in 1755, when his first service was on board the Newark, in the fleet sent to North America under Boscawen. Afterwards, in the Kingston, he was present at the reduction of Louisbourg in 1758, and in the Dunkirk at the battle of Quiberon Bay. The Dunkirk was shortly afterwards sent to the Mediterranean, and in December 1760 Cornwallis