Preceded by Christopher Hawkins Party Whigs Nationality Great Britain | Political party Whig Resigned May 1807 Role Politician | |
Spouse(s) Charlotte Hosier (1801-1810)Susannah Burdett (1830-1840) Alma mater Winchester CollegeEton College Name John Bettesworth-Trevanion Education | ||
John Trevanion Purnell Bettesworth-Trevanion, MP, OW (1780-8 March 1840) (born John Trevanion Purnell Bettesworth) was a Cornish politician. He rebuilt Caerhays as a Gothic-style castle.
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Early years
Bettesworth was born in St Michael Caerhays, Cornwall, England in 1780. He was the first son of John Bettesworth (died 1789) of Caerhays, who in 1784 unsuccessfully contested a seat in Parliament for Tregony, and Frances Elinor Tomkins (died 1821). His siblings included George, Henry, Frances, and Georgiana. His paternal grandparents were John Bettesworth, LLD, Dean of Arches, and Frances Trevannion.
His education included Winchester College in 1788, and Eton College in 1796.
Career
Bettesworth-Trevanion was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1804.
A Whig, he served as a Member of Parliament for Penryn briefly in 1807. He had contested the seat at the 1806 general election, but was defeated by Sir Christopher Hawkins; but the election was overturned on petition in February 1807, and Bettesworth-Trevanion held the seat until the general election in May 1807.
His military career included Cornet 2nd Dragoon Guards and reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve Cornwall militia.
Personal life
Bettesworth took the additional name of Trevanion by royal licence on 18 December 1801 when he inherited the Caerhays estate. Three days later, he married Charlotte Hosier (died 1810; age 27) by whom he had four sons including, John Charles Trevanion Bettesworth, Henry Trevanion Bettesworth (d. 1855), George Bettesworth (RN), and Frederick William Trevanion Bettesworth (vicar of Whitby), and one daughter, Charlotte Agnes (died 1809). His second son Henry Trevanion Bettesworth (1804-1855) married 4 February 1826 his distant cousin Georgiana Augusta Leigh (1808-1866), a daughter of Augusta Leigh (elder half-sister of Lord Byron) but in 1829 ran off with his sister-in-law Medora) to the Continent, where he eventually separated from her and died 1855. In 1830, he married secondly Susannah (c. 1800 - 1886), daughter of the English reformist politician, Sir Francis Burdett, by whom he had a daughter.
Bettesworth-Trevanion rebuilt Caerhays as a Gothic-style castle using the design of the Anglo-Welsh architect John Nash. Construction began in 1807 and was completed in 1810. As a consequence of his extravagance, Bettesworth-Trevanion fell heavily into debt, fleeing to Paris, forced to live abroad.
Described as "the very arbiter elegantiarum", he died in Brussels, Belgium in 1840.