Name William Rashleigh | Role Politician | |
Born 11 January 1777 (age 78) Died 14 May 1855 (aged 78) | ||
William Rashleigh (11 January 1777 – 14 May 1855) was an English politician and landowner from Cornwall.
Rashleigh was the son of Reverend Jonathan Rashleigh of Silverton, Devon, who was the third son of Jonathan Rashleigh MP and brother of Philip Rashleigh.
He was Mayor of Lostwithiel 1802 and 1808, and in 1811 he inherited the vast Menabilly estate. This gave him control of the Rashleigh family's pocket borough of Fowey, and at the 1812 general election he returned himself as Member of Parliament (MP) for Fowey. He sold the control of the borough in 1817, and at the 1818 general election he retired from the House of Commons.
He was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1820–21.
He was interested in natural history and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814. The Rashleigh Shark is named after him.
He died in 1855 at Kilmarth, near Menabilly.