• Born: 17 Sep 1794, Gulval, Cornwall ²
• Christened: 21 Dec 1794, Gulval, Cornwall ²
• Married: 19 Sep 1815, Gulval, Cornwall ²
• Died: 2 Apr 1865, St. Mary's Cottage, Lifton, Devon, England ³
• Died: 10 Apr 1865, Lifton, Devon, England ⁴

  Research Notes:

"William Arundell Harris (later Arundell) (1794-1865), ... is much the most intriguing member of the family. His upbringing is obscure, although he went to Eton and Jesus College, Oxford; Kenegie was leased out during his minority and he may have been brought up by his mother's family. His life-story is one of a savage turn of fortune. His mother died in 1812 and he probably gained effective control of his estates in that year, when he turned 18. He married in 1815 and immediately started building a new and probably expensive house in the park at Lifton, apparently to the designs of the otherwise unknown George Webber, who was probably a relative of his wife; an imprudently large expenditure on building may have laid the foundation for his later financial difficulties. He was a Conservative in politics, a JP and Deputy Lieutenant for Devon, and served as High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1817 and of Devon in 1841, but in 1827 he was prosecuted by the Attorney General for the autocratic and oppressive use of his judicial authority against a local carrier who had apparently upset him. In 1828 he sold the Kenegie estate, and even if he had debts from the building of Lifton Park this sale should have enabled him to clear them; but by the mid-1840s he was in a financial crisis. The reason for this is obscure, but perhaps his reputation for high living included a gambling habit: at all events in 1845 he was forced to sell Lifton Park to a Hampshire man, Henry Blagrove (later Bradshaw), whom his daughter promptly married. He bought Trebursye as a smaller estate, but his finances were still unstable and he sold this too a few years later and by 1850 he was an insolvent debtor and forced to live abroad. He was discharged in 1854 and thereafter lived in a cottage at Lifton on his son-in-law's estate. He seems to have beguiled his declining years by writing and publishing poetry. His face in old age ... perhaps reflects his bewilderment and disappointment at the way life had treated him. When he died in 1865 his effects were said to be worth less than £200, and his widow left under £800 in 1871. His only surviving son, William Reinfred Harris Arundell (1822-1901), did however apparently inherit from other relatives enough to live as a gentleman, although he never acquired a landed property." ⁵

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William Arundell Harris Arundell of St. Mary's Cottage, Lifton, died aged 70 years (burial record).

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Administration of the effects of William Arundell Harris Arundell late of Lifton in the county of Devon, who died 2 April 1865 at Lifton, was granted 6 October 1874 to William Reinfred Harris Arundell of Lifton, Gentleman, the son and one of the next of kin. Effects under £200. ³