May 10th Richard, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe (Death)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe PC (1716 – 1761) who died on this day in 1716 was an aristocrat and politician.

Raised on his family’s estate of Mount Edgcumbe on the Rame Peninsula and educated at Eton, he became Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle which was under the patronage of his father, Richard Edgcumbe, 1st Baron Edgcumbe.

Edgcumbe was a notoriously heavy gambler, often losing 20 guineas (an enormous amount then) a day at White’s Club in London.   He was bailed out by the Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, who awarded him a secret annuity of £500.  In order to conceal the annuity he was appointed Comptroller of the Royal Household.

                                                            

                                                                                                 Mount Edgcumbe (1869)

 

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