ROBARTES, Charles Bodvile (1660-1723), of Lanhydrock, Cornw.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1679
5 May - 17 July 1685

Family and Education

b. 26 July 1660, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Robert Robartes. m. bef. 4 June 1689, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir John Cutler, 1st Bt. of Westminster, s.p. styled Visct. Bodmin 8 Feb. 1682; suc. gdfa. as 2nd Earl of Radnor 17 July 1685.

Offices Held

Constable, Caernarvon Castle 1682-5, 1692-1713, 1714-d.; freeman, Liskeard, Bodmin and Tintagel 1685-Oct. 1688; ranger of Snowdon forest 1692-1713; j.p. and custos rot. Cornw. 1695-1702, ld. lt. 1696-1702, ld. lt. and custos rot. 1714-d.; jt. ld. warden of the stannaries and steward of Duchy of Cornw. 1701-2.1

PC 1 Jan. 1702; treas. of the chamber 1714-20.2

FRS 1693.

Biography

Robartes, as the second son, inherited the Welsh estates of his maternal grandfather under a family settlement, confirmed by a private Act in 1666. However his elder brother died young, and he became heir to £7,000 a year, or so his father asserted. His mother proposed to marry him to the daughter of Sir Richard Wynn, and negotiations were also begun for the hand of Lady Martha Osborne, but her father, Lord Treasurer Danby, preferred the claims of the Earl of Bath’s eldest son, Charles Granville, and nothing came of either match.3

Robartes was returned, while still a minor, to the second and third Exclusion Parliaments for Bossiney on the family interest. There is no direct evidence for his attitude on exclusion, but presumably he opposed it like the rest of the family. He was not appointed to any committees and made no recorded speeches in either Parliament. On his father’s death in 1682 he was styled Viscount Bodmin and received a gift of £500 as royal bounty. He was returned for Cornwall to James II’s Parliament, in which he was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges on 22 May, but shortly afterwards, on the death of his grandfather, he succeeded to the peerage. After several rebuffs from the new King, who favoured the Granvilles, he was reckoned an opposition peer, and in 1688 he appeared in arms for William of Orange. After 1690 he usually supported the Whigs. He died on 3 Aug. 1723 and was buried at Lanhydrock.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. Trans. Caern. Hist. Soc. vii. 31; CSP Dom. 1682, p. 161; 1685, pp. 66, 185; 1699-1700, p. 446; Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 1524; x. 462-3; J. Wallis, Bodmin Reg. 169; J. Maclean, Trigg Minor, iii. 207.
  • 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. xxvii. 326-7; xxix. 147.
  • 3. HMC 8th Rep. pt. 1 (1882), 104-5; Browning, Danby, i. 200.
  • 4. CSP Dom. 1685, pp. 185, 267; Cal. Treas. Bks. vii. 577; x. 462-3; HMC Ancaster, 433.