Piers Edgecumbe was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  between 1640 and 1644 and between 1662 and 1667. He supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

Edgecumbe was the son of Sir Richard Edgecumbe and his wife Mary Cottle, daughter of Sir Thomas Cottle of London.

In 1628 Edgecumbe was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Newport

Newport (Cornwall) (UK Parliament constituency)

Newport was a rotten borough situated in Cornwall. It is now within the town of Launceston, which was itself also a parliamentary borough at the same period...

 until 1629 when King Charles I decided to rule without parliament. In April 1640, Edgecumbe was elected MP for Camelford

Camelford (UK Parliament constituency)

Camelford was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1552 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

 in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

 and was returned again for the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 until he was disabled in January 1644. After the Restoration, Edgecumbe was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall

High Sheriff of Cornwall

High Sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list:Note: The right to choose High Sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall, rather than the Privy Council, chaired by the Sovereign, which chooses the Sheriffs of all other English counties, other than those in the Duchy of...

 in 1660 and re-elected MP for Newport in 1662, holding the seat until his death in 1667.

Edgecumbe died at the age of 51 and the inscription on his monument stated he "was a master of languages and sciences; a lover of the King and Church which he endeavoured to support, in the time of the Civil Wars, to the utmost of his power and fortune."

Edgecumbe married Mary Glanville, second daughter of Sir John Glanville

John Glanville

Sir John Glanville the younger , of Broad Hinton in Wiltshire, was a Speaker of the English House of Commons during the Short Parliament....

 of Broad Hinton in 1636, at St. Dunstan's Church, London. Their son was Sir Richard Edgcumbe

Richard Edgcumbe (politician)

Sir Richard Edgcumbe was an English politician.He was the son of Piers Edgcumbe of Mount Edgcumbe and Cotehele, Calstock, Cornwall, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir John Glanville of Broad Hinton, Wiltshire...

, MP.