Sir George Cornewall 2nd Bart. (ne Amyand)

"Sir George Cornewall (1748-1819) was the eldest son of Sir George Amyand, 'a highly successful merchant and banker' and a Director of the East India Company who had been made a baronet in 1766. He inherited from his father a considerable fortune of around £158,000, including a house at Carshalton in Surrey, a modest estate in Berkshire, La Taste plantation [in Grenada] and a share in his London banking firm. The Moccas estate in Herefordshire was added to this list when he married the heiress of a well-established county family, Catherine Cornewall, in 1771, under the condition that he change his name to Cornewall. Aspiring to be a country landowner, Cornewall relinquished his position in the Amyand banking business to his younger brother John in 1774 in order to adopt the established duties of the Cornewall family, as country squire and MP, having been elected that year for the Whigs in Herefordshire. However, he did not divest himself either of his trading interests nor his colonial investments. Rather Cornewall placed his second son, Charles, in the family banking business which he continued to support and concerned himself with estate management both in Herefordshire and Grenada."

Educated at Eton then Christ Church, Oxford. Married 18/07/1771, Catherine, daughter of Velters Cornewall of Moccas Court, and assumed the name Cornewall. MP for Herefordshire 1774-1796 and 1802-1807. Died 26/09/1819.

Susanne Seymour, Stephen Daniels and Charles Watkins, 'Estate and empire: Sir George Cornewall's management of Moccas, Herefordshire and La Taste, Grenada, 1771-1819', Journal of Historical Geography 24:3 (1998) pp 313-51.

Mary M. Drummond, 'CORNEWALL, Sir George, 2nd Bt. (1748-1819), of Moccas Court, Herefs.', History of Parliament Online http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/cornewall-sir-george-1748-1819 [accessed 14/09/2016].

We are grateful to Stephen Lewis for his assistance with compiling this entry.