Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe

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Edgcumbe was the son of George Edgcumbe, 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and Emma, daughter of John Gilbert (archbishop of York). In the 1770s he was in Florence where Johann Zoffany included him in a painting, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, commissioned by the Queen. Edgcumbe is one of the younger figures looking over the shoulder of Charles Loraine Smith and by a group who are admiring a painting on the left of the picture.[http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH200/Zoffany_tribuna_diag.jpg A key to the people shown], oneonta.edu, retrieved 17 October 2014

He gained the courtesy title, Viscount Valletort, when his father was made Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1789.[http://www.thepeerage.com/p1136.htm#i11352 thepeerage.com Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe]

Edgcumbe was returned to parliament for Fowey in 1786. In the June 1790 election, there was a double return for the constituency, but Edgcumbe and another candidate were declared elected in March 1791.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231350/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Fcommons.htm leighrayment.com House of Commons: Fairfield to Fylde South]}} In June 1790 he was also returned for Lostwithiel, but chose to represent Fowey.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090618100422/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Lcommons4.htm leighrayment.com House of Commons: London University to Lymington]}} In 1795 he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. He served under the Duke of Portland and Spencer Perceval as Captain of the Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners between 1808 and 1812. In 1808 he was sworn of the Privy Council.{{London Gazette |issue=16126 |date=8 March 1808 |page=353 }} In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.{{cite web | url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=1&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27edgcumbe%27%29| title= Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher = Royal Society | accessdate= 29 November 2010}}

Edgcumbe was also Lord Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of Cornwall between 1795 (succeeding his father) and 1839.

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Edgcumbe was the author of Musical Reminiscences of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, containing a list of the operas he heard from 1773 to 1823.Wayne Koestenbaum, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire, Gay Men's Press, 1994, page 17 This book has been often cited by musicologists concerned with operatic history from Mozart to Rossini. He also composed an Italian opera seria, Zenobia, which was staged but once at the King's Theatre in 1800,Curtis Price, Mount Edgcumbe, Richard, in Stanley Sadie (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997, III, pp. 487-488, {{ISBN|978-0-19-522186-2}}. starring Brigida Banti.

Lord Mount Edgcumbe married Lady Sophia Hobart, daughter of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, on 21 February 1789. They had five children:

• Lady Emma Sophia Edgcumbe (28 July 1791 – 28 January 1872), who married John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow, on 17 July 1828.
• Lady Caroline Anne Edgcumbe (22 October 1792 – 10 April 1824), who married Ranald George Macdonald, 20th of Clanranald, in April 1812 and had issue.
• William Richard Edgcumbe, Viscount Valletort (19 November 1794 – 29 October 1818).
• Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (23 March 1797 – 3 September 1861).
• George Edgcumbe (28 June 1800 – 18 February 1882).

The Countess of Mount Edgcumbe died in August 1806. Lord Mount Edgcumbe remained a widower until his death in September 1839, aged 75. He died at his home on Richmond Hill and is buried at St Peter's Church, Petersham, Richmond-upon-Thames.{{cite web |title=Tomb of the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe in the Churchyard of St Peter's Church A Grade II Listed Building in Richmond upon Thames, London |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101380186-tomb-of-the-earl-of-mount-edgecumbe-in-the-churchyard-of-st-peters-church-ham-petersham-and-richmond-riverside-ward#.XvXZSChKhPY |website=British Listed Buildings}}{{Cite news |date=28 September 1839 |title=DEATH OF THE EARL OF MOUNT EDGCUMBE |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/R3212153230/BNCN?u=rtl_ttda&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=079a73db |work=Standard |via=British Library Newspapers}}

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{{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for Fowey | with=Philip Rashleigh | before=Philip Rashleigh
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{{s-ttl | title=Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall | years=1795–1839}}

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{{s-ttl | title=Vice-Admiral of Cornwall | years=1795–1839}}

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{{succession box | before=George Edgcumbe | title=Earl of Mount Edgcumbe | years=1795–1839 | after=Ernest Edgcumbe}}

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Category:1764 births

Category:1839 deaths

Category:Burials at St Peter's, Petersham

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Category:Lord-lieutenants of Cornwall

Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Category:People from Maker, Cornwall

Edgcumbe, Richard

Category:Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society