Clement Francis Cornwall

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Clement Francis Cornwall (June 18, 1836 – February 10, 1910) was a Canadian parliamentarian and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.

Cornwall was born at the stately home of Ashcroft House, near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, England in 1836, son of the Reverend Alan Gardner Cornwall, an Anglican cleric, and Caroline Kingscote. Both of Cornwall's parents, though untitled, were able to trace their family lineages in England back as far as the Norman Conquest of 1066. After childhood education in private schools, Cornwall graduated in 1858 from Magdalene College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts and, before leavining England, was called to the bar by the Society of the Inner Temple, London in 1862, departing for and arriving in British Columbia in the same year.

Unlike nearly all others newly-arrived in the colony, Cornwall made no effort to pursue mining despite touring the mining districts, choosing instead to focus on stock-raising and the pursuit of the legal profession, spending time at his practice as lawyer seasonally at Wild Horse Creek, French Creek and in the Big Bend.

In 1864 Cornwall was elected to represent the Hope-Yale-Lytton riding for the newly-created colonial Legislative Assembly , and was also a member of the same body in 1871 during the period in which British Columbia joined Canadian confederation. Immediately after the new province entered Confederation, he was appointed to the Canadian senate and served in that capacity for ten years until accepting the invitation to serve as Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia in 1881. He had been appointed a provincial Justice of the Peace in 1864 and also continued in that capacity until April, 1885, and retiring from the office of Lieutenant-Governor in 1887 . He was engaged in "rural pursuits" - the life of a gentleman rancher - from the time of his retirement onwards until September 17, 1889, when he was appointed to the bench as Judge of the County Court of Cariboo, and also receiving the title of Stipendiary Magistrate in the same year, and did not retire from that position until retiring to Victoria in 1906.

Cornwall was a member of many agricultural and pioneer societies, including the Dominion Council of Agriculture, and in partnership with his brother Henry P. Cornwall managed a ranching operation which was the province's largest supplier of livestock for many years. Their cattle ranch near the confluence of the Bonaparte and Thompson Rivers was named for Cornwall's birthplace as Ashcroft Manor, this name coming to be applied to the town of the same name. The ranch also operated a gristmill, a sawmill, and a roadhouse. Both Cornwalls were avid proponents of "gentlemen's sports", especially horse racing and fox-hunting. The Ashcroft Manor Ranch was memorable for its hunting parties, with Cornwall's select group of foxhounds, from the Duke of Beaufort's celebrated kennels, put in hot pursuit of the local coyotes instead of foxes, and lavish social entertainments for any guests visiting during the hunt. Ashcroft also became one of the main horse-racing venues in the province, in a time when that was the number one sport, and Cornwall took a prominent part in their organization and in due course became president of the British Columbia Jockey Club.

Cornwall, who was a member of the Church of England, was married to Charlotte Pemberton, daughter of the Reverend A.G. Pemberton of Kensal Green, London.