Robert Wroth (Middlesex MP)

Sir Robert Wroth (c. 1540 – 27 January 1607) was an English politician.

Life

Robert, born in

Elizabeth I

. He afterwards entered public life, and the rest of his career was devoted to politics and the administration of a large estate.

He was elected for the first time to parliament for St Albans on 11 January 1563; he was returned for Bossiney on 2 April 1571; he took his seat as member for the important constituency of Middlesex on 8 May 1572, and was re-elected to seven later parliaments (1584, 1586, 1589, 1593, 1597, 1601, and 1604).

Meanwhile, his father's death on 9 October 1573 had placed him in possession of large estates in Middlesex,

William Parry (20 February 1584–5), Anthony Babington (5 September 1586), Patrick O'Cullen (21 February 1593), many Jesuits and suspected coiners (26 March 1593), and Valentine Thomas

(22 July 1598).

In 1599 he wrote to Michael Hicks of Ducketts in Tottenham about robbers or highwaymen who gathered in the evening at Snaresbrook, Leyton Heath, and Temple Mill. He hoped Colstone, Hicks's brother-in-law who lived nearby at Forest House, could catch them.^[2]

Wroth retained the favour of the government under James I. On 22 May 1603 the new king granted him a walkership in

Walter Ralegh on 15 September 1603, when through some misunderstanding he incurred the displeasure of the attorney-general.^[3] He was in the special commission of oyer and terminer for Middlesex issued 16 January 1606 for the trial of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

conspirators.

Wroth died on 27 January 1607, and was buried on the following day at

Enfield

. His obsequies were formally celebrated on 3 March.

Family

Sir Robert married Susan, daughter and heiress of John Stonard of Loughton, through whom he acquired the estate of Loughton. He seems to have had at least four surviving sons:

Sir Robert (1576?–1614) who married Lady Mary Wroth.
John, who was admitted a student of the Inner Temple, 1596, was afterwards described as a captain, and succeeded to Durrants (also spelt Durants), the family's estate at Enfield in Middlesex,^[4]
Thomas.
Henry, who is styled "of Woodbury in Herefordshire".^[5]

Sir Henry Wroth

(died 1671), second son of Henry, Sir Robert's youngest son, acquired some fame as a royalist during the civil wars.

References

^ Venn gives his date of admittance as Michaelmas 1552. "Wroth, Robert (WRT552R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), pp. 180-182.
^ (Edwards, Ralegh, i. 420).
^ See Lysons, Daniel (1811). The Environs of London: Kent, Essex, and Herts. p. 197.
^ Lee, Sidney (1900). "Wroth, Robert" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co. sources: [Morant's Essex, i. 162–5; Visitation of Essex (Harl. Soc.); Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 428, 534; Nichols's Progresses; Robinson's Enfield; Park's Hampstead; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. x. xi.; Davy's MS. Suffolk Collections in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19156, ff. 255–7.]

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Wroth, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[1] Venn gives his date of admittance as Michaelmas 1552. "Wroth, Robert (WRT552R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[2] Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 3 (London, 1827), pp. 180-182.

[3] (Edwards, Ralegh, i. 420).

[4] See Lysons, Daniel (1811). The Environs of London: Kent, Essex, and Herts. p. 197.

[DNB00-5] Lee, Sidney (1900). "Wroth, Robert" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co. sources: [Morant's Essex, i. 162–5; Visitation of Essex (Harl. Soc.); Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 428, 534; Nichols's Progresses; Robinson's Enfield; Park's Hampstead; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. x. xi.; Davy's MS. Suffolk Collections in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19156, ff. 255–7.]

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