Sir Richard Edgcumbe (1499 – 1 February 1562) was an English courtier and politician.
Contents
Family
Richard Edgcumbe was the eldest son of Sir Peter (or Piers) Edgcumbe (1477 – 14 August 1539) of Cotehele, Cornwall, and his first wife, Jane Derneford (d. before 1525), daughter and heir of James Derneford of Stonehouse, Devon, and widow of Charles Dynham of Nutwell, Devon.
By his father's first marriage, Richard Edgcumbe had two brothers and three sisters. His mother, Jane, died before 1525, and his father married Catherine St John, the daughter of Sir John St John of Bletsoe, and widow of Sir Gruffudd ap Rhys of Carmarthen.
Career
Edgcumbe and his brother entered Lincoln's Inn on 2 February 1517. Edgcumbe's grandson, Richard Carew, says that he studied at Oxford, but of this there is no other record. He was among the knights created by Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 18 October 1537, and two years later he succeeded to his father's estates. On a portion of the Stonehouse property, which had come into the family through his mother, and which Sir Piers had already emparked, he built the house named by him Mount Edgcumbe, which was completed in 1553.
He was elected Member of Parliament for Cornwall in 1542 and 1547. He was High Sheriff of Devon for 1543 and 1552, High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1556 and in 1557 was named commissioner of muster in Cornwall to call out and arm three hundred men. In April 1558 he was commissioned to command the Militia of the Devonshire Hundreds around Plymouth Haven. He was complimented by Thomas Cromwell on the lucidity of the reports which he sent up from quarter sessions.