William Copeland Borlase MA, FSA (1848 – 31 March 1899) born at Castle Horneck, near Penzance in Cornwall, was a well known antiquarian and Member of Parliament (MP) for the St Austell division of Cornwall.^[1]

A member of a wealthy Cornish family, his early life was much influenced by the archaeological work of His Great Great Grandfather, Dr. William Borlase the Cornish Historian. Young Borlase visited many of the ancient sites in Cornwall and in 1863 he supervised the excavations of the re-discovered prehistoric settlement and fogou at Carn Euny. Although Borlase produced many sketches he would commission fellow Cornish antiquarian John Thomas Blight who did the engravings for the report.

Educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford he became a Liberal MP for East Cornwall in 1880. In 1886 he was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board but when he took to fine living much of his political and antiquarian achievements were forgotten after his Portuguese mistress exposed his debts. The scandal brought him ruin and bankruptcy. Following this downfall he went off to work in Ireland as a remittance man. He also went on to manage tin mines in Spain and Portugal.

The rest of the family disowned him and he died aged just 51. His address when he died was Bedford Court-mansions, Bloomsbury, London.

Works

• An account of excavations at Carn Euny. (1862-1864)
• Ancient Cornwall. 2 volumes (1871)
• The Age of Saints in Cornwall: Early Christianity in Cornwall with Legends of the Cornish Saints.
• Naenia Cornubiae: a descriptive essay, illustrative of the sepulchres and funereal customs of the early inhabitants of the county of Cornwall. (1872)
• The Dolmens of Ireland (in three volumes). (1897)

External links

• THE BANKRUPTCY OF MR. W. C. BORLASE

References

Mother and Sun, The Cornish Fogou by Ian McNeil Cooke. Pages 27-28

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