Edward Boscawen, 1st Earl of Falmouth



Edward Boscawen, 1st Earl of Falmouth (10 May 1787 – 29 December 1841), known as the Viscount Falmouth between 1808 and 1821, was a British peer and politician.

Background
Falmouth was the son of George Boscawen, 3rd Viscount Falmouth and Elizabeth Anne, the only daughter of John Crewe, of Cheshire. He was educated at Eton College and served briefly as an Ensign in the Coldstream Guards.

Career
In the General Election of 1807, Falmouth was elected Member of Parliament for Truro, standing as a Tory on the day before his 20th birthday. On the death of his father the following year, he resigned both his seat and his commission and took up his place in the House of Lords. In 1821, on the coronation of George IV, he was created Earl of Falmouth.

As a member of the Ultra-Tory faction, he was vehemently opposed to parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. In 1829 he acted as second to Lord Winchilsea in his famous duel with the Duke of Wellington over the latter issue. He always insisted that he persuaded Winchelsea to fire into the air, and he had certainly prepared an apology, which Wellington accepted.

He was the last Recorder of Truro and the author of a pamphlet on the subject of stannary courts.

Family
Lord Falmouth was married to Anne Frances Bankes (1790–1864), elder daughter of Henry Bankes of Kingston Lacy estate on 27 August 1810. She was from the old and prominent Bankes family, her brother were "the exiled" William John Bankes and George Bankes.

He died at Tregothnan in December 1841, aged 54, and was succeeded by his only son, George.

Lady Falmouth lived at 3 Whitehall Gardens, Westminster, until her death in 1864. A philanthropist, she endowed almshouses at Brimpton and a village school at Woolhampton, both in Berkshire.