Sir Richard Vyvyan, 8th Baronet

Sir Richard Vyvyan
Bt
Personal details
Born Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan
6 June 1800
Trelowarren, Cornwall, England
Died 15 August 1879
Trelowarren, Cornwall, England
Resting place Mawgan-in-Meneage, Cornwall, England
Nationality British
Political party Tory/Ultra-Tory
Spouse(s) not married
Children no issue
Residence Trelowarren, Cornwall
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation Landowner
Profession Scientist

Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, 8th Baronet (6 June 1800 15 August 1879) was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1825 and 1857.

Early life

Vyvyan was born at Trelowarren, Cornwall, the son of Sir Vyell Vyvyan, 7th Baronet and his wife Mary Hutton Rawlinson, daughter of Thomas Hutton Rawlinson of Lancaster. He was educated at Harrow School and at Christ Church, Oxford but did not take a degree. In 1820, he succeeded to the baronetcy and Vyvyan family estates on the death of his father. He became a lieutenant-colonel commandant in the Cornwall yeomanry cavalry on 5 September 1820.

Political career

In 1825, Vyvyan was elected Member of Parliament for Cornwall.[1] He held the seat until 1831. From 1831 he represented Okehampton,[2] but upon the passage of the Reform Act 1832, he moved to Bristol, serving until 1837.[3] He later served as Member for Helston from 1841 until 1857.[4] Vyvyan was High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1840.

Scientific work

In 1826, Vyvyan was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for his "considerable literary and scientific acquirements especially in the Philosophy of Natural History",[5] previously having been a Fellow of the Geological Society.[5]

He was also the patron of Charles Thomas Pearce, who he initially employed as his secretary in about 1843, and with whom he undertook “researches on light, heat, and magnetism of the Moon’s rays” over a period of years. Between 1846 and 1848, they shared a house built by Decimus Burton in London's Regent’s Park, called St. Dunstan’s Villa.

Vyvyan’s scientific writings

He also published several letters and speeches. His letter ‘to the magistrates of Berkshire’ on their practice of ‘consigning prisoners to solitary confinement before trial, and ordering them to be disguised by masks,’ passed into a second edition in 1845. His account of the ‘fogou’ or cave at Halligey, Trelowarren, is in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (1885, viii. 256-8).

References

  1. Leigh Rayment Commons constituencies beginning with C part 6
  2. Leigh Rayment Commons constituencies beginning with O
  3. Leigh Rayment Commons constituencies beginning with B Part 6
  4. Leigh Rayment Commons constituencies beginning with H part 2
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Fellow: Vyvyan; Sir; Richard Rawlinson (1800 - 1879)". Royal Society. 1826.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir William Lemon, 1st Baronet
John Hearle Tremayne
Member of Parliament for Cornwall
18251831
With: John Hearle Tremayne 18251826
Edward William Wynne Pendarves 18261831
Succeeded by
Edward William Wynne Pendarves
Sir Charles Lemon
Preceded by
William Henry Trant
John Thomas Hope
Member of Parliament for Okehampton
18311832
With: John Thomas Hope
Constituency abolished
Preceded by
James Evan Baillie
Edward Davis-Protheroe
Member of Parliament for Bristol
18321837
With: James Evan Baillie 18321835
Philip John Miles 18321837
Succeeded by
Philip William Skinner Miles
Francis Henry Fitzhardinge Berkeley
Preceded by
John Basset
Member of Parliament for Helston
18411857
Succeeded by
Charles Trueman
Baronetage of England
Preceded by
Vyell Vyvyan
Baronet
(of Trelowarren)
18201879
Succeeded by
Vyell Donnithorne Vyvyan