Philip Rashleigh (28 December 1729 – 26 June 1811) of Menabilly, Cornwall, was an antiquary and

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

and a Cornish squire. He collected and published the

Trewhiddle Trewhiddle is a small settlement in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies in the civil parish of Pentewan Valley and the parish, ecclesiastical parish of St Austell. The nearest town is St Austell, approximately one mile to the north. ...

Hoard of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

treasure, which still gives its name to the "Trewhiddle style" of 9th century decoration.

Origins

He was born at Aldermanbury, City of London, on 28 December 1729, the eldest son and heir of Jonathan Rashleigh (1693–1764), of Menabilly, MP for

Fowey Fowey ( ; , meaning ''beech trees'') is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, ...

in Cornwall, by his wife Mary Clayton, daughter of Sir William Clayton, 1st Baronet (died 1744) of Marden Park in Surrey. (see: Woldingham)

Career

He matriculated from

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, 15 July 1749, and contributed to the poems of the university on the death of

Frederick, Prince of Wales Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis, German: ''Friedrich Ludwig''; 31 January 1707 – 31 March 1751) was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen C ...

, a set of English verses, which is reprinted in Nichols's ''Select Collection of Poems'' (viii. 201–2); he left Oxford without taking a degree. On the death of his father in 1764 he inherited the family seat of Menabilly, near

on the south coast of Cornwall. He also took over from him in Parliament as the elected member for the family borough of

on 21 January 1765, sitting continuously, in spite of contests and election petitions, until the dissolution of 1802, by which time he was known as the "

Father of the House of Commons Father of the House is a title that has been traditionally bestowed, unofficially, on certain members of some legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the title refers to the longest continuously ...

". His knowledge of Cornish

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

procured his election as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and

in 1788.

Portrait

A portrait of Rashleigh, seated in a chair, was painted by

John Opie John Opie (16 May 1761 – 9 April 1807) was a British painter whose subjects included many prominent men and women of his day, members of the British royal family and others who were notable in the artistic and literary professions. Early ca ...

about 1795, and is now in the

Royal Cornwall Museum The Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, formerly known as the Royal Cornwall Museum, is a museum in Truro, England, which holds an extensive mineral collection rooted in Cornwall's mining and engineering heritage (including much of the mineral coll ...

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

.R. J. Cleevely, 'Rashleigh, Philip (1729–1811)',

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 4 Dec 2007
/ref> It is a "fine specimen of the painter's best period".

Scientific work

Rashleigh's collection of minerals was remarkable for its various specimens of tin. Much is on display at the

, with portions at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

,Copperores more information
/ref> and its most valuable portions are described in two volumes of ''Specimens of British Minerals'' from his cabinet (1797 and 1802). In the same collection are models in glass of the hailstones that fell on 20 October 1791, particulars of which, with the figured representations, are given, on Rashleigh's information, in King's ''Remarks on Stones fallen from the Clouds'', pp. 18–20. He contributed antiquarian papers to the ''Archæologia'', ix. 187–8, xi. 83–4, xii. 414, but they were derided by Dr. John Whitaker as the work of an "amateur in antiquarianism". A paper by him on certain "alluvial deposits" at Sandrycock, Cornwall, is in the ''Transactions'' of the

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society originally based in Penzance, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in ...

, ii. 281–4, and a letter from him to E. M. Da Costa, on some English shells, is in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Addit. MS. 28541, f. 196. He constructed a remarkable

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

at Polridmouth, near the family seat. In 1791 and 1792, Rashleigh sold 41 specimens from his collection to the Austrian collector Éléonore de Raab. ''Information about Raab is included in section 9, about the catalogue of her collection'' Rashleigh was a regular correspondant with John Hawkins, patron of

Martin Heinrich Klaproth Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743 – 1 January 1817) was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and ...

, and

William Gregor William Gregor (25 December 1761 – 11 June 1817) was a British clergyman and mineralogist who discovered the elemental metal Titanium. Early years He was born at the Trewarthenick Estate in Cornwall, the son of Francis Gregor and Mary C ...

, discoverer of

Titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

. They bought and sold minerals, patronised leading chemists and introduced european geological theories into the British Isles. Cleevely (2000) called these the "Trio of Cornish Geologists".

Marriage

He married his first cousin, Jane Pole (1720–1795), only daughter of the Rev. Carolus Pole, 3rd son of Sir John Pole of Shute, Devonshire. They had no issue, and the family estates passed to his nephew William Rashleigh (1777–1855), MP for Fowey (1812–18) and

Sheriff of Cornwall Sheriffs and high sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list: The right to choose high sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Privy Council, chaired by the sovereign, chooses the sheriff ...

for 1820.Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp. 1891–3, Rashleigh of Menabilly

Death and burial

He died at Menabilly on 26 June 1811 and was buried in the church of

Tywardreath Tywardreath (; , meaning "House on the Beach" (or Strand)) is a small hilltop village on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, about north west of Fowey. It is located in a sheltered spot overlooking a silted-up estuary opposite ...

, Cornwall.

References

;Attribution

External links

Mineralogical Record gallery of illustration of the Rashleigh collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashleigh, Philip 1729 births 1811 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford Mineralogists from Cornwall British antiquarians Politicians from Cornwall Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London People from Fowey Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Fowey British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fowey UK MPs 1801–1802

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

Burials in Cornwall Geologists from Cornwall