Cornwallis never married and eventually invited his friend Captain John Whitby, Whitby's wife Mary Anna Theresa and their daughter to live at his Newlands estate in Hampshire. One plausible reading is that years of shared naval service had created friendship and mutual dependence between Cornwallis and John Whitby. The household gave Cornwallis company and people he trusted to manage his affairs while he commanded the fleet. After John Whitby died in 1806, Mary and her daughter remained with Cornwallis and cared for him into old age. Cornwallis left them his estate and fortune, treating them as family by choice rather than blood.
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Cornwallis, the Whitbys and a service family
Cornwallis's household with Captain John Whitby, Mary Anna Theresa Whitby and their daughter grew from naval friendship into a family arrangement ashore.