Edward James Eliot
(24 August 1758 ? 20 September 1797) was an English Member of Parliament.
Life
[
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Eliot was born in
Cornwall
, the son of Catherine (
c
.1735?1804), daughter and heir of Edward Elliston of Gestingthorpe, Essex, an East India Company captain, and
Edward Craggs-Eliot
(1727?1804), politician, created Baron Eliot in 1784.
[1]
He went to
Pembroke College, Cambridge
in 1775, becoming friends with the future
Prime Minister
,
William Pitt the Younger
, and graduated with an MA in 1780.
[2]
He was elected
Member of Parliament
for
St Germans
, Cornwall from 1780 and for
Liskeard
from 1784. He soon became a
Treasury
minister
from 1782, and was a member of the
government
of the Younger Pitt from 1783, being appointed
King's Remembrancer
in the
Exchequer of pleas
in 1785.
[1]
On 24 September 1785 he married Harriot Pitt, the younger daughter of
William Pitt the Elder
and sister to the Younger Pitt. One year later, and five days after the birth of their only child, a daughter named Harriot Hester, Eliot's wife died as a result of complication from childbirth. Eliot never recovered from the grief of losing his wife.
[1]
After Harriot's death, Eliot moved to Broomfield, near
Clapham
, where he came into contact with the
Clapham Sect
of evangelical reformers, whose cause he espoused. He had been a friend of
William Wilberforce
for some years, and the pair of them had accompanied Pitt to
France
. Now he found himself living close to Wilberforce and other leading members of the group dubbed 'the Saints'. He began to take an active part in their reforming causes, including the
abolition
of the
slave trade
,
prison reform
and
poor relief
, the Proclamation Society, and
Bishop Porteus'
Sunday Observance bill. He was active in lobbying the cause of the Clapham Sect in parliament and acted as a
mediator
between Wilberforce and Pitt in their campaigns.
The 1792 Slave Trade Bill passed the House of Commons mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of
Pitt
,
Earl of Mornington
, Edward James Eliot and
the Attorney General
, it lay for years, in the House of Lords.
[3]
[4]
In 1793, having resigned from the Treasury on health grounds, Eliot was appointed joint commissioner for Indian affairs. He became an investor in the
British East India Company
stock, and was expected to become governor-general of
Bengal
. However, he suffered from a recurring chronic stomach disorder which made it impossible for him to take up that office.
[1]
Eliot died at
Port Eliot
, Cornwall on 17 September 1797, and was buried at St Germans on 26 September 1797. (True Briton, London Newspaper, Tuesday, 26 Sept 1797. The church record for EJE's burial was apparently entered belatedly, when his burial date was entered as 3 October 1797. His true death date can be found on the silver plaque at St Germans Church.)
[5]
He had remained close to Pitt and Wilberforce, who both lamented his passing. His brother
John
succeeded to the barony and in 1815 was created
Earl of St Germans
.
[1]
References
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