Sir Lewis Molesworth, 11th Baronet

Sir Lewis William Molesworth Bt. (31 October 1853 – 29 May 1912) was an English landowner from Cornwall and Liberal Unionist Party politician.

Lewis Molesworth was the eldest son of The Reverend Sir Paul William Molesworth, the tenth baronet and the grandson of Sir William Molesworth who served as Colonial Secretary under Lord Palmerston. Lewis succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1889. Sir Paul Molesworth had been an Anglican rector but converted to Roman Catholicism in 1854 and he passed on his religion to his son Lewis. Lewis was duly educated at Beaumont and Stonyhurst Colleges.

In 1875, he married Jane Graham, the daughter of Brigadier-General Daniel Marsh Frost of St Louis, Missouri. Lady Molesworth died in September 1913 of heart failure which an inquest jury found had been brought on by the sting of a wasp. She died at Trewarthenick where she and her husband had shared a home.

Molesworth descended from an old established landowning family. One source records he owned 20,000 acres. It is likely he inherited substantially from the earlier Molesworth baronets, who as recently as the time of Lewis' birth, had income from estates in Huntingdonshire and Jamaica as well as interests in mining and banking. In 1909 he inherited the Pencarrow Estate in North Cornwall which had been in the Molesworth family since the late 16th century. Consequently, Sir Lewis Molesworth had sufficient private income and was in the privileged position of being able to give his time and commitment to his public career.

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