Biography

James Cornwallis. (1743-1824) (aka. Bishop of Lichfield / 8th Baron Cornwallis)

Son of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis (1700-1762) and Elizabeth Townshend (1698-1785). Brother of Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), who was sometime Lord-Lieut. of Ireland and Commander in Chief in India. Married (1772) to Catherine Mann (1742-1811) in Lambeth Chapel.

Educated at Christ Church, Oxford. Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (1781-1824). Dean of Canterbury (1781-1824), Dean in commendam of Windsor (1791-1794), Dean in commendam of Durham (1794-1824). (Link) He became the fourth Earl and 8th Baron Cornwallis in 1823, following the death of his nephew Charles Cornwallis, the third Earl. (Link)

According to CFK Brown, James Cornwallis was an aristocratic nonentity who owed his promotion to Bishop to his uncle Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Cornwallis (d. 1783) (Link), and it must be admitted that, considering the length of his tenure as Bishop and Dean, history doesn't say much about him.

Life with James Boswell:

Boswell met Cornwallis in the company of Sir James Macdonald and others in Oxford on April 23, 1763.

This article was last updated at February 16 2008 21:00:11 CET

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