William Copeland Borlase FSA (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal.

Young Borlase visited many of the ancient sites in Cornwall and in 1863 and supervised the excavations of the re-discovered prehistoric settlement and fogou at Carn Euny.

Although Borlase produced many sketches he commissioned fellow Cornish antiquarian John Thomas Blight to do the engravings for the report.

His Portuguese mistress exposed his debts and the scandal brought him ruin and bankruptcy.

[6][7] He left England to work in Ireland as a remittance man and also went on to manage tin mines in Spain and Portugal.