67 Facts About Lord Cornwallis

Lord Cornwallis later served as a civil and military governor in Ireland, where he helped bring about the Act of Union; and in India, where he helped enact the Cornwallis Code and the Permanent Settlement.

Lord Cornwallis next saw military action in 1776 in the American War of Independence.

Lord Cornwallis was born in Grosvenor Square in London, though his family's estates were in Kent.

Lord Cornwallis was the eldest son of Charles Cornwallis, 5th Baron Cornwallis.

Frederick Lord Cornwallis, created a Baronet in 1627, fought for King Charles I, and followed King Charles II into exile.

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Lord Cornwallis was made Baron Cornwallis, of Eye in the County of Suffolk, in 1661, and by judicious marriages his descendants increased the importance of his family.

Lord Cornwallis was educated at Eton College and Clare College, Cambridge.

Lord Cornwallis then sought and gained permission to engage in military studies abroad.

Lord Cornwallis managed instead to secure an appointment as a staff officer to Lord Granby.

Lord Cornwallis succeeded his father as 2nd Earl Cornwallis in 1762, which resulted in his elevation to the House of Lords.

Lord Cornwallis became a protege of the leading Whig magnate, and future Prime Minister, Lord Rockingham.

Lord Cornwallis was one of five peers who voted against the 1765 Stamp Act out of sympathy with the colonists.

Lord Cornwallis became colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot in 1766.

Lord Cornwallis was often given a leading role during this campaign; his division was in the lead at the Battle of Long Island, and he chased the retreating George Washington across New Jersey after the city fell.

Lord Cornwallis gathered together garrisons scattered across New Jersey and moved them towards Trenton.

Lord Cornwallis was unable to dislodge Washington in the battle that followed.

Lord Cornwallis prepared his troops to continue the assault of Washington's position the next day, but critically failed to send out adequate patrols to monitor the Americans.

Lord Cornwallis spent the winter in New York and New Jersey, where the forces under his command were engaged in ongoing skirmishes with the Americans.

Lord Cornwallis continued to serve under Howe on his campaign for control of the rebel capital, Philadelphia.

Lord Cornwallis was again often in an advance role, leading the flanking manoeuvre at the Battle of Brandywine, and playing key roles at Germantown and Fort Mercer.

The relationship between Clinton and Lord Cornwallis had noticeably soured during the Charleston campaign, and they were barely on speaking terms when Clinton left.

Task Clinton left Lord Cornwallis with was to, first and foremost, preserve the gains made by taking Charleston, and only then engage in offensive moves.

Lord Cornwallis was expected to recruit more Loyalists, who were believed to be more numerous in the southern colonies.

Lord Cornwallis established a series of outposts in South Carolina, but keeping communication and supply lines open was an ongoing challenge.

Lord Cornwallis attempted to reestablish civil authority under British or Loyalist oversight.

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In London, Lord Cornwallis was perceived as a hero, and was viewed by many there as the right man to lead the British forces to victory over the rebels.

Lord Cornwallis then clashed with the rebuilt Continental army under General Nathanael Greene at Guilford Court House in North Carolina, winning a Pyrrhic victory with a bayonet charge against a numerically superior enemy.

Lord Cornwallis then moved his forces to Wilmington on the coast to resupply.

Lord Cornwallis received dispatches in Wilmington informing him that another British army under Generals William Phillips and Benedict Arnold had been sent to Virginia.

Phillips, a personal friend of Lord Cornwallis, died one week before Lord Cornwallis reached his position at Petersburg.

Lord Cornwallis then sought to fulfil orders Clinton had given to Phillips, and raided the Virginia countryside, destroying American military and economic targets.

Lafayette skirmished with Lord Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements.

Lord Cornwallis eventually received firm orders from Clinton to choose a position on the Virginia Peninsula—referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck"—and construct a fortified naval post to shelter ships of the line.

Lord Cornwallis's surrender did not mark the end of the war, though it ended major fighting in the American theatre.

Lord Cornwallis retained the confidence of King George III and the government of the earl of Shelburne, but he was placed in a financially precarious state by his inability to be on active duty.

Lord Cornwallis attended manoeuvres along with the Duke of York where they encountered his old opponent Lafayette.

In 1786 Lord Cornwallis was made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

Lord Cornwallis had in 1782 been offered the governor-generalship only, but refused the post until he received military command as well.

Lord Cornwallis engaged in reforms of all types, that affected many areas of civil, military, and corporate administration.

Lord Cornwallis worked to reduce nepotism and political favouritism, instituting the practice of merit-based advancement.

Lord Cornwallis had the company take over the few remaining judicial powers of the Nawab of Bengal, the titular local ruler of much of the Bengal Presidency, and gave some judicial powers to company employees.

Lord Cornwallis had the legal frameworks of Muslim and Hindu law translated into English, and promulgated administrative regulations and a new civil and criminal code.

Lord Cornwallis introduced legislation to protect native weavers who were sometimes forced into working at starvation wages by unscrupulous company employees, outlawed child slavery, and established in 1791 a Sanskrit college for Hindus that is the Government Sanskrit College in Benares.

Lord Cornwallis established a mint in Calcutta that, in addition to benefiting the poor by providing a reliable standard currency, was a forerunner of India's modern currency.

Part of the Lord Cornwallis Code was an important land taxation reform known in India as the Permanent Settlement.

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Lord Cornwallis, a landed gentleman himself, especially believed that a class of landed gentry would naturally concern themselves with the improvement of the lands, thus improving the condition of its tenants.

Lord Cornwallis had been sent to India with instructions to avoid conflict with the company's neighbors.

Lord Cornwallis was manoeuvred into the establishment of a new company based at Penang, where conflict was avoided when he agreed to pay a stipend to the local rajah for use of the base.

Lord Cornwallis declined the king's request, sending instead Colonel William Kirkpatrick to mediate the dispute.

Lord Cornwallis ordered company and Crown troops to mobilize in response.

Lord Cornwallis returned to England the following year, and was succeeded by Sir John Shore.

Lord Cornwallis oversaw improvements to Britain's coastal defences, and was able to expand Woolwich Academy's artillery training program to address a significant shortage of qualified artillery officers.

Lord Cornwallis's appointment was greeted unfavourably by the Irish elite, who preferred his predecessor Lord Camden, and suspected he had liberal sympathies with the predominantly Catholic rebels.

The French invaders were defeated and forced to surrender at the Battle of Ballinamuck, after which Lord Cornwallis ordered the execution by lot of a number of Irish rebels.

Lord Cornwallis was instrumental in securing passage in 1800 of the Act of Union by the Parliament of Ireland, a necessary step in the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Pitt consequently resigned, and Lord Cornwallis resigned his offices, returning to London in May 1801.

Lord Cornwallis was then sent to France to finalise peace terms with Bonaparte.

Negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Amiens, which Lord Cornwallis signed on behalf the United Kingdom on 25 March 1802.

Lord Cornwallis is often seen as being partially responsible for conceding too much in the negotiations, although much had already been granted to France in the preliminary negotiations.

Lord Cornwallis arrived in India in July 1805, and died on 5 October of a fever at Gauspur in Ghazipur, at that time in the Varanasi kingdom.

Lord Cornwallis was buried there, overlooking the Ganges River, where his memorial is a protected monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Lord Cornwallis appears in the 1835 novel Horse-Shoe Robinson by John Pendleton Kennedy, a historical romance set against the background of the Southern campaigns in the American War of Independence, and interacts with the fictional characters in the book.

Lord Cornwallis is depicted as courtly in manner, but tolerant, or even supportive, of brutal practices against those found deficient among his own forces, and against enemy prisoners.

Fort Lord Cornwallis, founded in 1786 in George Town, Prince of Wales Island, is named for him.

Statues of Lord Cornwallis can be seen in St Paul's Cathedral, London, Fort Museum, Fort St George, Chennai, and in the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata.

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Lord Cornwallis was the recipient of the first British commemorative statue sent to the Indian subcontinent.

Bacon was paid £5250 for the standing figure, which portrayed Lord Cornwallis wearing an officer's tailcoat, breeches, brocade and an immense cloak.