This new biography of Sir William Molesworth of Pencarrow expores his personal life as it interwove with his remarkable career as a Radical politician, cut off by his early death when Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time of the Crimean War. Landlord of great properties in Cornwall and Devon, he fought for the rights of the people - for the ballot, national education, abolition of transportation, repeal of the Corn Laws. Himself a declared agnositc, he defended all religions against political discrimination.