Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe

rdf:langString Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe

rdf:langString George Edgcumbe 1747

rdf:langString The Lord Sundon 1742–1747

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Penryn

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle

rdf:langString Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe PC (2 August 1716 – 10 May 1761) was a British nobleman and politician. The eldest surviving son of Richard Edgcumbe, 1st Baron Edgcumbe and his wife Matilda Furnese, he was educated at Eton from 1725 to 1732. Through his father's interest in Devon and Cornwall, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle at a by-election in 1742 as a Government supporter. Edgcumbe was a heavy gambler, losing "daily twenty guineas" at White's. He was given a secret service pension of £500 a year by Henry Pelham to provide for him. Meanwhile, he was made a of Lostwithiel in 1743 and served as mayor the next year. He switched his seat to Lostwithiel in 1747. Dissatisfied with subsisting on Government charity, he unsuccessfully made an application to Pelham for employment, rather than a pension, in 1752. He was eventually made a in 1754, when he was returned for Penryn and the next year, a Lord of the Admiralty instead, serving for a year. In 1756, he was appointed Comptroller of the Household and was again mayor of Lostwithiel, being appointed to the Privy Council on 19 November. Succeeding his father in 1758, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall in 1759 and recorder of Plympton Erle. He died childless in 1761 and was succeeded by his brother.