BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF THE HON. WILLIAM CORNWALLIS, ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE, AND REAR-ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND

Summary

Justum ac tenacem propositi virum

Non civium ardor prava jubentium,

Non vultus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solidâ; neque Auster

Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ;

Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus;

Si fractus illabatur orbis,

Impavidum tenent ruinæ.

Horace, lib. 3 III.

Thus the grim lion his retreat maintains,

Beset with watchful dogs and shouting swains,

Long stands the showering darts, and missile fires,

Then sourly slow the indignant beast retires

So turn'd stern Ajax, by whole hosts repell'd,

While his swoln heart at every stroke rebell'd.

Pope's Iliad.

The noble family of Cornwallis are said to have come originally from Ireland, and it was a younger branch of the house which settled in this kingdom about the reign of Edward the Third.

William Harvey, Esq. Clarenceux, King of Arms, in his visitation of the county of Suffolk in 1561, mentions Thomas Cornwalleys (as the name was anciently written), of London, merchant, who is the first that appears in this account, and gives the particulars of a deed drawn in Edward the Third's time, which he saw, and also the arms of the family engraven on stone in the church porch of Otley, near Broome, which corresponded with the seal on the above mentioned deed; this gentleman was Sheriff of London in 1378. In the succeeding reign of Richard the Second, John Cornwallis was Knight of the Shire for Suffolk in two Parliaments.