William Copeland Borlase (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal.

Early life

Borlase was born at Castle Horneck, near

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situ ...

in Cornwall, England, the only son of Samuel Borlase and his wife Mary Anne (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Copeland) Borlase (d. 1882), daughter of William Copeland of

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the Londo ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. A member of a wealthy Cornish family, Borlase's early life was much influenced by the archaeological work of his great-great-grandfather, Dr.

William Borlase William Borlase (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769 ...

the Cornish historian. Young Borlase visited many of the ancient sites in Cornwall and in 1863 and supervised the excavations of the re-discovered

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

settlement and

fogou A fogou or fougou (pronounced "foo-goo") is an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron Age or Romano-British-defended settlement sites in Cornwall. The original purpose of a fogou is uncertain today. Colloquially called , , , giant holts ...

at Carn Euny. Although Borlase produced many sketches he commissioned fellow Cornish antiquarian John Thomas Blight to do the engravings for the report. Borlase was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

Career

He was called to the bar at

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1882 and was JP for Cornwall and a Deputy Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon. In the 1880 general election, Borlase was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for East Cornwall, until the seat was divided in the

Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equa ...

. In the 1885 general election, he was elected MP for

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell was ...

. In 1886, he was made

Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

. However he took to fine living. His Portuguese mistress exposed his debts and the scandal brought him ruin and bankruptcy. He resigned his seat in the

on 29 April 1887 and his house at Laregan was put up for auction on 17 May 1887. He left England to work in Ireland as a remittance man and also went on to manage tin mines in Spain and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. The rest of the family disowned him and he died aged 50. His address when he died was 34, Bedford Court Mansions,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, in London.

Works

* * , 2 vols. * , (Reissued: ) * * * * * (Reissued: ) * * , 3 vols. , (Reissued: ) ** ** ** Grave of William Copeland Borlase in Highgate Cemetery

Death

Borlase died on 31 March 1899 and was buried in the east side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

Notes

References

Sources

External links

*
''Naenia Cornubiae''
from The Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Borlase, William Copeland 1848 births 1899 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Archaeologists from Cornwall Politicians from Cornwall English antiquarians 19th-century antiquarians English archaeologists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Cornwall People from Penzance UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 Remittance men 19th-century English politicians 19th-century English writers