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Lieutenant-General Edward Cornwallis
Edward Cornwallis by Joshua Reynolds (1756)
Governor of Nova Scotia
In office 1749–1752
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Richard Philipps
Succeeded by	Peregrine Hopson
Governor of Gibraltar
In office 14 June 1761 – 1 January 1776
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Earl of Home
Succeeded by	Baron Heathfield
Personal details
Born	5 March 1713 London, England
Died	14 January 1776(1776-01-14) (aged 62) Gibraltar
Resting place	Culford
Spouse(s)	Mary Townshend
Relations	Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis (grandfather) Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (nephew) James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis (nephew) William Cornwallis (nephew) Frederick Cornwallis (brother) Stephen Cornwallis (brother) Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis (brother)
Children	Charles, Charlotte
Father	Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1730s–1776
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	8th Foot
Commands	20th Foot, 40th Foot, 24th Foot
Battles/wars	War of the Austrian Succession Father Le Loutre's War Seven Years' War

Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis (5 March [O.S. 22 February] 1713 – 14 January 1776)^[1] was a British military officer who was a member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family. Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and then was given the task of establishing Halifax, Nova Scotia as the Governor of Nova Scotia (1749–1752).^[2] Cornwallis returned to London, where he was elected as MP for Westminster and married the niece of Robert Walpole, Great Britain's first Prime Minister. Cornwallis was then given the position of Governor of Gibraltar.

Cornwallis' administration in Nova Scotia had several significant achievements. Cornwallis implemented the first constitution in present-day Canada, establishing both an Executive and Legislative Council.^[3] He oversaw the first British law courts in Canada (court of General Sessions, County Court, and Supreme Court); erected forts at Grand Pre, Chignecto and Halifax; organized a militia of 840 men; established a public school for orphans; respected religious diversity through separation of church and state.^[4][5] He also established the first Jewish community, the first German community and the first protestant dissenting congregation in present-day Canada.^[6] As a result of these accomplishments, Cornwallis is remembered in the naming of rivers, parks, streets, towns, and buildings in Nova Scotia.

Controversy has been created over commemorating Cornwallis' accomplishments in recent years.^[7] Local Mi’kmaq leaders objected to Governor Cornwallis' extirpation proclamation (1749). As a result, a statue of Cornwallis in a downtown park in Halifax was removed, the HRM citing safety concerns and a desire to protect the statue from vandalism. The Halifax Regional School Board removed his name from a junior high school. The HRM has struck a committee to discuss how Cornwallis should be commemorated.

Early life

Cornwallis was the sixth son of Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis, and Lady Charlotte Butler, daughter of the Earl of Arran.^[8] The Cornwallis family possessed estates at Culford in Suffolk and the Channel Islands.^[8] His grandfather, Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, was First Lord of the Admiralty. His nephews were Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis, and William Cornwallis.

Cornwallis and his twin brother, Frederick Cornwallis, were made royal pages at the age of 12.^[8] They were enrolled at Eton at age 14. Their brother, Stephen Cornwallis, rose to the rank of General in the Army.

It was initially unclear which brother would enter the church and which the military. The matter was decided when, one day, Frederick fell and paralysed his arm; he would take the religious path.^[9]

At age 18, Edward was commissioned into the 47th Regiment of Foot in 1731.^[8]

Military career

War of the Austrian Succession

Cornwallis participated in the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession. He fought under Colonel Craig, who was killed in action. Cornwallis took over command of the regiment and organised a retreat. Cornwallis's regiment lost eight officers and 385 men. While the retreat was respected by the military, the British public mocked Cornwallis and the other leaders.^[10]

Cornwallis played an important role in suppressing the Jacobite rising of 1745.^[8] He fought for the victorious, government soldiers at the Battle of Culloden and then led a regiment of 320 men north for the Pacification of the Scottish Highlands. The Duke of Cumberland ordered him to "plunder, burn and destroy through all the west part of Invernesshire called Lochaber." Cumberland added: "You have positive orders to bring no more prisoners to the camp."^[11] Cumberland's campaign was later described by one historian as one of unrestrained violence.^[12] Cornwallis ordered his men to chase off livestock, destroy crops and food stores.^[13] Against Cornwallis' orders, there was an incident in which some of soldiers raped and murdered non-combatants to intimidate Jacobites from further rebellion.^[14]

In 1747 Cornwallis was made a Groom of the Bedchamber serving in the households of both George II and George III until 1764.

Founding of Halifax

Cornwallis built Governor's House (1749). (Located on the site of Province House, which still is furnished with his Nova Scotia Council table)

The British Government appointed Cornwallis as Governor of Nova Scotia with the task of establishing a new British settlement to counter France's Fortress Louisbourg. He sailed from England aboard HMS Sphinx of 14 May 1749, followed by a settlement expedition of 15 vessels and about 2500 settlers. Cornwallis arrived at Chebucto Harbour on 21 June 1749, followed by the rest of the fleet five days later. There was only one death during the passage due to careful preparations, good ventilation and good luck, a remarkable feat when transatlantic expeditions regularly lost large numbers to disease.^[15]

Cornwallis was immediately faced with a difficult decision: where to site the town. Settlement organizers in England had recommended Point Pleasant due to its close access to the ocean and ease of defence. His naval advisers opposed the Point Pleasant site due to its lack of shelter and shallows which would not allow ocean-going ships to dock. They wanted the town located at the head of Bedford Basin, a sheltered location with deep water. Others favoured Dartmouth. Cornwallis made the decision to land the settlers and build the town at the site of present-day Downtown Halifax halfway up the harbour with deep water, protected by a defensible hill (later known as Citadel Hill). By 24 July, the plans of the town had been drawn up and on 20 August lots were drawn to award settlers their town plots in a settlement that was to be named "Halifax" after Lord Halifax the President of the Board of Trade and Plantations who had drawn up the expedition plans for the British Government.^[1]

Father Le Loutre's War

The table first used by Edward Cornwallis and the Nova Scotia Council (1749), The Red Chamber of Province House

When Cornwallis arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of the Mi'kmaq participating in raids on British settlements in present day Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).^[16][17][18] During this time period, various British governors had issued proclamations against the Mi'kmaq for their participation in the raids.^[19]

Edward Cornwallis by Sir George Chalmers (1755)

One of Cornwallis' first priorities was to make peace with the Mi'kmaq and other indigenous tribes in the region. A Maliseet chief, Passamaquoddy chief and Mi'kmaw chief from Chignecto met with Cornwallis in the Summer of 1749. They agreed with the British to end fighting and renewed an earlier 1725 treaty drafted in Boston, redrafted as the Treaty of 1749.^[20] Cornwallis' efforts to have other Mi'kmaq tribes sign treaties were rejected. Most Mi'kmaq leaders in Nova Scotia regarded the unilateral establishment of Halifax as a violation of the 1725 treaty with the Mi'kmaq people, signed after Father Rale's War.^[17] Mi'kmaq leaders met at St. Peters in Cape Breton in September 1749 to respond to British moves. They composed a letter to Cornwallis making it clear that, while they tolerated the small garrison at Annapolis Royal, they completely opposed settlement at Halifax: "The place where you are, where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, where you want, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you want to make yourself absolute master, this land belongs to me". Thus Mi'kmaq leaders regarded the Halifax settlement as "a great theft that you have perpetrated against me."^[21]

Cornwallis sought to project British military power throughout Nova Scotia by establishing forts in the largest Acadian communities, at Pisiguit (Windsor) (Fort Edward), Grand Pré (Fort Vieux Logis), and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). The French erected forts at present day Saint John, Chignecto (Fort Beauséjour), and Port Elgin, New Brunswick. The fighting started when Acadians and Mi'kmaq responded by attacking the British at Chignecto, Canso and Dartmouth.

To stop the raids on the British settlements, Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation to remove the Mi'kmaq from peninsular Nova Scotia. As part of the proclamation he offered a bounty for the capture or scalps of Mi'kmaw men and later instructions included a bounty for the capture of women and children: the bounty promised a reward for "every Indian you shall destroy (upon producing his Scalp as the Custom is) or every Indian taken, Man, Woman or Child."^[22][23] Because the bounty yielded virtually no contact with the Mi'kmaq and failed to stop the raids, Cornwallis increased the bounty for Mi'kmaw fighters dramatically. This increase brought in only one scalp in the next nine months.^[24] Over the next two years, the indigenous and Acadian raids continued at Grand Pre, Chignecto, Dartmouth and once on Halifax.

Fort Edward, named after Edward Cornwallis

In May 1751, the Mi'kmaw mounted their largest attack on British settlers with the Raid on Dartmouth. With this raid, the Mi'kmaq had stopped British expansion and therefore the Mi'kmaw stopped attacking. Cornwallis interpreted the cessation of attacks as the Mi'kmaq wanting peace. Indeed, Cornwallis laid the foundation for and was at the signing of the Treaty of 1752 with Major Cope. Cornwallis attended the meeting at Cope's request. Having only committed to being Governor for two years, Cornwallis eventually resigned his commission and left the colony in October 1752.^[25][26] The treaty was ultimately rejected by most of the other Mi'kmaq leaders. Cope burned the treaty six months after he signed it.^[27]

As Governor, Cornwallis reported to the Board of Trade of Britain. The Board repeatedly expressed concern to Cornwallis for overspending: over the amount of bread delivered, the cost of arming Chignecto. In March 1751, Cornwallis was told that he would lose the confidence of parliament unless he refrained from overspending in the future. Cornwallis replied that the Board had underestimated the task of establishing Halifax under such hostile conditions and that to “flatter Your Lordships with hopes of savings” would be “dissimulation of the worst kind.”^[28] Cornwallis left Nova Scotia in October 1752, three years before Father Le Loutre's War ended in 1755. He was appointed Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot and was elected to parliament in 1753.

Seven Years' War

Edward Cornwallis, etching by John Giles Eccardt after portrait by Joshua Reynolds

In November 1756 Cornwallis was one of three colonels who were ordered to proceed to Gibraltar and from there embark for Menorca, which was then under siege from the French.^[8] Admiral John Byng called a council of war, which involved Cornwallis, and advised the return of the fleet to Gibraltar leaving the garrison at Menorca to its fate.^[8] Byng, Cornwallis and the other officers were arrested when they returned to England. A large, unruly mob attacked the officers as they left their ships in Portsmouth and later burned effigies of Cornwallis and the other officers.^[29]

The officers faced court martial on "suspicion of disobedience of orders and neglect of duty."^[30] Byng was found guilty and executed. Cornwallis testified that he had not disobeyed orders, but that it was "impracticable" to land at Menorca due to stiff French defences. Further, he said he was following Byng's command. "I looked upon myself as under the command of the admiral and should have thought it my duty to have obeyed him", he testified.^[30] Cornwallis was judged to have been a passenger under the control of Byng and was thus exonerated.

Cornwallis was also one of the senior officers in the September 1757 Raid on Rochefort which saw a failed amphibious descent on the French coastline.^[8] The vast force massed on the Isle of Wight before sailing for Rochefort. The fleet stopped at Île D'Aix and examined the French defences. General Sir John Mordaunt, head of the land forces, decided the defences were too strong to attack. He called a council of war. Cornwallis voted to retreat, while Admiral Edward Hawke, head of the naval forces, and James Wolfe, quartermaster general, voted to attack. Mordaunt and Cornwallis carried the day and the mission was abandoned.^[31]

Mordaunt was arrested and faced court martial. Cornwallis testified that an attempted landing at Rochefort would have been "dangerous, almost impracticable and madness."^[32] James Wolfe wrote to his father in November 1757 and said Cornwallis "... has more zeal, more merit, and more integrity than one commonly meets with among men.... Cornwallis is a man of approved courage and fidelity."

Governor of Gibraltar

Cornwallis served as the Governor of Gibraltar from 14 June 1761 to January 1776 when he died at the age of 63.^[8] His body was returned to England and laid to rest at Culford Parish Church in Culford, near Bury St. Edmunds on 9 February 1776. Both of his family titles are now extinct. In 1899, MacDonald wrote, "His name is fast coming under the category of ‘Britain's forgotten worthies'."^[33]

Personal life

Edward Cornwallis' wife, Mary Townshend

In 1763, Cornwallis married Mary Townshend, daughter of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend and Dorothy Townshend (Walpole), the sister of Robert Walpole. His marriage to Mary did not produce any children. His brother, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis married Mary's half sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles and his first wife, Elizabeth Pelham. Through his brother's marriage, he became uncle of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis.^[34]

Commemorations in Nova Scotia

Several buildings, (Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis, a former Canadian Forces Base located in Deep Brook, Nova Scotia) places (Cornwallis Street in Halifax, Cornwallis Street in Shelburne, the Cornwallis River, and Cornwallis Park), and landmarks have been named after Cornwallis. A number of ships were named after Cornwallis, including the 1944 harbour ferry Governor Cornwallis and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Edward Cornwallis. As a tourism initiative, a statue of Cornwallis was erected in 1931 at the center of Cornwallis Park in downtown Halifax, also named for Cornwallis.

These commemorations of Cornwallis have become controversial in Nova Scotia. Cornwallis Junior High School was renamed Halifax Central Junior High in January 2012,^[35] In 2018, the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church announced it would change its name to New Horizons Baptist Church.^[36][37] The Cornwallis statue was removed by order of Halifax Regional Council on 30 January 2018, with the city citing safety concerns and wanting to protect the statue from vandals.^[38] It was placed into storage, and Halifax Council struck a committee to examine the commemorations of Cornwallis and the final disposition of the statue.

On 28 January 2019, a Nova Scotia school teacher was awarded the Governor General's History Award for her class' proposal to retain the statue in Cornwallis Park. Her proposal was to include the Cornwallis statue among three other statues of Acadian Noel Doiron, Black Nova Scotian Viola Desmond and Mi'kmaw Chief John Denny Jr.. The four statutes would be positioned as if in a conversation with each other, discussing their accomplishments and struggles.^[39][40]

In popular culture

• Edward Cornwallis is the subject of The Hampton Grease Band song entitled "Halifax" which appears on the double album Music to Eat.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward Cornwallis.

• Military history of Nova Scotia


• Military history of the Mi'kmaq people


• Military history of the Acadians

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

• Documentary on Cornwallis Statue – CBC Radio – Maritime Magazine Archives


• Centre Acadien (1996)


• 
  Cornwallis – Founder of Freemasonry in Halifax^{[permanent dead link]}