Edward Brydges Willyams
British politician (1834–1916)
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Edward William Brydges Willyams (5 November 1834 – 10 October 1916) was a Liberal MP, successively for three Cornish constituencies.[1] In 1892, he was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall.[2]
Life
Willyams was born 6 November 1834, the son of Humphry Willyams,[3] a banker, land-owner and Liberal elector of Truro[4] and Ellen Frances Brydges Neynoe, his wife. She was the daughter of Colonel William Brydges Neynoe of Castle Neynoe, County Sligo.[5]
His older brother, James Willyams died aged 38 in 1861.[5]
His aunt by marriage Sarah Brydges Willyams, was an heiress, who married his father's elder brother James and had no children. However, when she died in 1863, she gave three-quarters of her fortune to Benjamin Disraeli, a great friend of hers and she was interred next to him in the Disraeli vault at Hughenden, Buckinghamshire.[1][6]
Willyams was educated at Merton College, Oxford.[1]
He was married twice, first to Jane, youngest daughter of Sir Trevor Wheler, Bt. on 26 June 1856[7] and then on 5 June 1882 to Emily, a daughter of Sir Joseph Moses Levy, the proprietor of The Daily Telegraph, which then supported the Liberal Party.[1] Emily Brydges Willyams died 5 February 1902.
He died on Tuesday, 10 October 1916, at his seat, Carnanton House, St Columb Major.
Parliamentary service
- MP for Truro from 1857 to 1859.[8]
- MP for East Cornwall, 1868–1874.
- MP for Truro, 1880–1885.
He stood for election at St Austell in 1887, as a Liberal Unionist but was defeated by the Gladstonian candidate,[9] and at the Truro by-election in 1878 he lost to the Conservative candidate Arthur Tremayne.
Interests
Difficulties
He was the co-respondent in a divorce in 1871/72, having carried on an affair with Lady Jolliffe, the wife of Captain Jolliffe, MP for Wells. He did not stand at the General Election in 1874.[4]: 183–189 [10]
Olive Willyams, the wife of his heir, Arthur Hugh Vivien Willyams, tried to obtain £4,000 from him, using promissory notes that he claimed were forged by her. She was committed to prison for three years and was afterwards declared to have become insane.[1][11][12]
