Robert Wroth (died 1614)
Robert Wroth (died 1614) was an English courtier and Member of Parliament for Newtown.
He was a son of Robert Wroth (d. 1606) and Susan Stonard, daughter of John Stonard of Loughton in Essex.[1] He was knighted by King James at Syon House in May 1603.[2]
On 27 September 1604 at Penshurst he married the poet Mary Sidney, a daughter of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester and Barbara Gamage.
Prince Henry visited his father Robert Wroth from Nonsuch Palace and stayed for three days in May 1605.[3] King James visited Loughton in July 1605.[4] Prince Henry returned in July 1606.[5]
Wroth bought a manor in Essex in March 1608 from
The house was described as rebuilt in June 1612.[9] Wroth may have incurred his large debts, which have sometimes been attributed to his wife's extravagance, by buying and refurbishing the house at Loughton.[10] Wroth was a commissioner to the royal works to extend Theobalds and improve the park.[11]
His friend Ben Jonson described Loughton and Robert Wroth's virtues as a host in a poem in the collection, The Forest.[12][13] Although William Drummond of Hawthornden recorded that Jonson said Mary Wroth was, "unworthily married on a jealous husband", Jonson's poem To Sir Robert Wroth, which dwells on his unmartial character, is not necessarily satirical in intent.[14] William Gamage wrote a couplet praising Robert Wroth's housekeeping at his other property, Durants in Enfield.[15]
Robert Wroth died of gangrene in 1614.
His young son and heir died in July 1616 and his inheritance passed to his uncle, John Wroth.[16]
References
- ^ "WROTH, Sir Robert II (c.1576-1614), of Durants, alias Gartons, Enfield, Mdx. and Loughton Hall, Essex | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 166.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 17 (London, 1938), p. 364.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 517-8.
- ^ William Chapman Waller, 'An Extinct County Family: Wroth of Loughton Hall, I', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8:2 (Colchester, 1901), p. 158.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 120.
- ^ There are two copies of this petition, see; HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 315, endorsed "1608": HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 23 (London, 1974), p. 123, endorsed "1603".
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 22 (London, 1971): William Chapman Waller, 'An Extinct County Family: Wroth of Loughton Hall, I', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8:2 (Colchester, 1901), pp. 162-3.
- ^ William Chapman Waller, 'An Extinct County Family: Wroth of Loughton Hall, I', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8:2 (Colchester, 1901), p. 163 fn.2.
- ^ Andrew Thrush, 'WROTH, Sir Robert II (c.1576-1614), of Durants, alias Gartons, Enfield, and Loughton Hall, Essex', The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010.
- ^ William Chapman Waller, 'An Extinct County Family: Wroth of Loughton Hall, I', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8:2 (Colchester, 1901), p. 164.
- ^ David Norbrook, Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance (Oxford, 2002), pp. 168-70.
- ^ Martin Elsky, 'Microhistory and Cultural Geography: Ben Jonson's 'To Sir Robert Wroth' and the Absorption of Local Community in the Commonwealth', Renaissance Quarterly, 53:2 (2000), pp. 500-528.
- ^ Margaret Hannay, Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth (Ashgate, 2010), pp. 155-6.
- ^ William Chapman Waller, 'An Extinct County Family: Wroth of Loughton Hall, I', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 8:2 (Colchester, 1901), p. 159.
- ^ Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1848), p. 418.