Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull
Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (6 August 1584 – 25 July 1643) was an English nobleman who joined the Royalist side in the English Civil War after some delay and became lieutenant-general of the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Norfolk. He was killed in a friendly fire incident after being captured by Parliamentary forces.
Early life
Pierrepont was the second son of
In 1596 he became an undergraduate of Oriel College, Oxford, and was later a benefactor in the rebuilding of the college's Front Quad.
Career
Pierrepont was one of the two Members of Parliament for
In 1633 he bought Thoresby Park.
Pierrepont remained neutral on the outbreak of the Civil War,[2] declaring, in what was later taken to be a prophetic curse:
When… I take arms with the King against Parliament, or with the Parliament against the King, let a cannon-ball divide me between them.[3]
He eventually became a Royalist, joining King Charles, and was appointed lieutenant-general of royal forces in the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Norfolk.[2]
Whilst defending Gainsborough he was taken prisoner, and was killed on 25 July 1643, aged 58, while being conveyed to Hull by boat along the River Trent. Royalist forces fired at his captors from the river bank, accidentally killing the Earl whose body was cut in two by a cannonball.[3]
Personal life
Pierrepont married Gertrude Talbot, a daughter of Henry Talbot (1554–1596), a younger son of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and Elizabeth Reyner (born 1556) on 8 January 1601 in Overton Longueville, Huntingdonshire.
Pierrepont had five sons, the eldest of whom was his heir
Pierrepont's daughter Lady Frances (born 1615) married Philip Rolleston, Esquire.
He was succeeded in his peerage by his son Henry, who built the first Thoresby Hall in 1670. The author Frances Catherine Barnard was a descendant.
Arms
References
- ^ Grace Pierrepont, ThePeerage.com, Retrieved 27 December 2008
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kingston-upon-Hull, Earls and Dukes of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 821. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ ISBN 0-19-861394-6.