James Cornewall

Captain James Cornewall ( – 11 February 1744) was a British Royal Navy officer and politician who became a national hero following his death in action at the Battle of Toulon in 1744. Cornewall's monument in Westminster Abbey was the first ever to be erected by the Parliament of Great Britain at public expense.

Early life and career Cornewall was born in 1698, the youngest son of Henry Cornewall and his second wife Susanna, and was baptised at Moccas on 17 November 1698.

His naval career began as a Volunteer-per-order, serving first upon from March 1721 before transferring to in December of the same year. Three years later, he was given his first independent command, he was promoted to captain of the Fifth-rate on 3 April 1724. He spent four years aboard this ship, principally in the waters off Boston, protecting trade and suppressing piracy. John Knox Laughton compares this phase of his life to "the opening chapters of Fenimore Cooper's Water Witch and Red Rover."

While in Boston, Cornwall drew the ire of provincial authorities for heavy-handedness. When local authorities raised a crew and provincial naval vessel to hunt pirates in the summer of 1726, Cornwall stopped them and fired on the vessel when the provincial sailors refused to stop for him.

He returned to England in August 1728, and made an unsuccessful attempt to represent the seat of Weobley on 30 January 1730, losing to John Birch. When Birch was expelled from Parliament due to his involvement in the fraudulent sale of the Derwentwater estates, Cornewall stood again and defeated him on 14 April 1732. In December of that year he was back at sea, this time commanding , which he sailed to the coast of Morocco establishing friendly relations with the Barbary pirates of Salé and the bashaw of Tétouan. Cornewall had sought to overturn the result of the 1734 election on the basis that "the right of election [at Weobley] was in the occupiers or owners of certain 'ancient vote-houses' and not in the householders at large." By the time the House came to consider this petition, Birch was no longer alive to defend his side of the argument, resulting in Cornewall once more being appointed to the seat on 3 March 1737.

He was not able to spend much time in the House, only recorded as voting twice and speaking once. Command passed to his cousin, Frederick Cornewall, who was First Lieutenant aboard the Marlborough, but he too was severely wounded and lost his right arm. Captain Cornewall was buried at sea.

News of Cornewall's death was greeted by a public show of grief comparable with that following the loss of Nelson sixty years later,

Family

Cornewall never married, but he had an Illegitimate son by a Mrs Hannah Southwark of Boston named Thomas Cornewall (d. 1796), to whom he left £4000 in his will, The bulk of James Cornewall's estate was left to his Half-brother Henry Cornewall, with instructions that it should pass to their brother Velters on Henry's death. as well as probably being the earliest representation of Britannia on a monument. An earlier attempt to move the monument to make room for one to Lord Salisbury was dropped after navy objections.