died, at four o'clock in the morning, on the 23d January 1806, in the 47th year of his age, and was shortly afterwards interred in Westminster Abbey.

The freedom of the Grocers' Company was voted to Mr. Pitt in February 1784, and his obliging mode of accepting the honour gave great fatisfaction to the Members. The record was richly emblazoned on vellum and was accompanied by the following letter:

"Sir,

"In teftimony of the lively sense which the Grocers' Company entertain of your able, upright, and difinterested conduct, as Firft Commiffioner of the Treasury and Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, and in gratitude for and approbation of your steady zeal, in supporting the legal prerogative of the Crown and constitutional rights of the people, in the present alarming and critical juncture of affairs, the Court of Affiftants do themselves the honour to admit you into the freedom of their Company, and have directed the Wardens to present you with the copy taken from their book of admiffion.

CHARLES, MARQUESS CORNWALLIS, K.G.

"He was a man of rare undoubted might,
Famous throughout the world for warlike prayse,
And glorious fpoyles purchaft in perilous fight."

Spenfer. Faerie Queene. Canto V.

HE family of Cornwallis
fprung originally from

commerce, and fettled

honourably in Suffolk

nearly five centuries ago.

William Harvey, Efq. Clarenceux

King of Arms, in his vifitation of the

county of Suffolk made anno 1561, ftates that Thomas Cornwalleys of London merchant, the firft of this family mentioned in the faid vifitation, "was a younger brother, and born in Ireland, from whence the furname cometh, (where at this day he found divers of that name, as appears by a deed indented in the forty-first year of Edward III. and that this Thomas gave the fame arms which the house, at the time of the faid vifitation, did bear, with a fefs dancette; the like whereof (he fays) is engraven in ftone upon the church porch of Ocley near Broome; nevertheless, they do now bear, and of long time have borne, the fefs plain; which deed, with the feal of arms, and the efcutcheon upon the porch, as is aforefaid, the faid Clarenceux teftifies to have seen in his faid vifitation." This Thomas Cornwalleys was Sheriff of London in 1378, and dying in 1384, was buried in the church of St. Martin's Vintry, London.

From him defcended Frederick, the firft Peer, who on the 20th of April 1661, was created a Baron of the realm, by the title of Lord Cornwallis of Eye, in the county of Suffolk.

Charles, the fifth Lord, one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber to George I. was conftituted Lord Chicf Justice, and Juftice in Eyre of all the King's forests, &c. fouth of Trent and was elevated to the rank of an Earl, by the style and title of Viscount Broome in the county of Suffolk and Earl Cornwallis.

Charles, his eldest son and heir, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 31st of December 1738. He represented the Borough of Eye in Parliament, until he fucceeded his father in the Peerage in 1762. His Lordship, choosing a military life, was appointed aide-de-camp to George III. in August 1765, with the rank of Colonel of foot. He became Major-general in 1775, Lieutenant-general in 1777, and General in 1793. The hiftory of this distinguished foldier's active life, to be fully appreciated, must be read in the annals of his Country. He had an important, though not always fortunate, command in the American war; and in 1786, his Lordship was fent out to India with a double appointment of Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief; and, arriving at Calcutta in September of that year, found the different Prefidencies in rifing profperity. Not long after, the Government of Bengal judged it neceffary to declare war against the Sultan of Myfore, for his attack on the Rajah of Travancore, the ally of the English. The Campaign of 1790 was indecifive; but in March 1791, Lord Cornwallis invaded the Myfore, and came in fight of Seringapatam, which he was prevented from investing

by the floods of the Cavery. In 1792 be befieged that metropolis; when, as the attack advanced, Tippoo Saib fued for peace, and obtained it, on terms dictated by his Lordship. By his integrity, punctilious regard to faith, and difinterested and generous conduct, he increased the reputation of the British name in India and, by his measures for its improvement, ameliorated the condition of our Empire there.

On the 5th of August 1792, he was advanced to the dignity of Marquefs Cornwallis.

In 1798, the rebellion in Ireland appearing, both to the Viceroy Lord Camden and to His Majefty, to require a Lord Lieutenant, who could act in a military as well as in a civil capacity, the King appointed Marquefs Cornwallis his fucceffor. "The rebellion being finished," fays Biffet, "the new Viceroy adopted a plan of mingled firmnefs and conciliation, which, executed with difcriminating judgment, tended to quiet Ireland and prepare matters for a permanent plan to prevent the recurrence of fuch pernicious evils, and to promote the industry and profperity of the country."* He retained his high appointment till May 1801, when he was fucceeded by the Earl of Hardwicke.

In 1804 his Lordship had the honour of being appointed a fecond time Governor-General of India on the recall of Marquefs Wellesley; and in that station he died, at Gawnepoor, in the province at Benares, October the 5th 1805, worn out with an active life spent in the service of his Country, and covered with glory and honours.+

* History of England, vol. vi. p. 215.

+ Collins's Peerage, by Sir E. Brydges, vol. ii. p. 537.

On the 31st of October 1792, the Marquefs Cornwallis was elected a Member of the Grocers' Company, at the fame time with his friend and companion in arms, Sir William Medows.

MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM
MEDOWS, K.B.

N the pedigrees preserved at the College of Arms I find that Daniell Meadowe, of Chatisham, St. Mary, in the county of Suffolk, in the year 1630, purchased the Lordship of Witnefham of Sir Robert Kytcham. His

fon, Sir Philip Medows, Marthal of the King's Palace and Knight of the order of the Elephant of Denmark, was appointed His Majesty's Ambaflador to the Court of Sweden. His great grandfon, Charles Medows, representative in Parliament for the county of Nottingham, took the name and arms of Pierrepoint, and was raised to the peerage in 1796, by the title of Viscount Newark of Newark-upon-Trent, and Baron Pierrepoint of Holme Pierrepoint, both of the county of Nottingham.

His third brother, Sir William Medows, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, was a Majorgeneral in the army, and Colonel of the 73d regiment of foot, Highlanders. He was the companion in arms of the great Marquefs Cornwallis, under whom he