THROCKMORTON, Robert (c.1662-99), of Little Paxton, Hunts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1698 - 9 Mar. 1699

Family and Education

b. c.1662, 1st s. of John Throckmorton of Gloucester co. and New Kent co. Virginia by Frances, da. and h. of Edward Mason, Merchant Taylor, of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London and Hemingford Abbots, Hunts.  m. c.1682, his 2nd cos. Mary, da. of Thomas Bromsall of Blunham, Beds., 3s. 5da. (2 d.v.p.).  suc. fa. c.1678; uncle Robert Throckmorton at Ellington, Offord Cluny and Stow, Hunts. 1682.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Godmanchester 1698–d.2

Biography

A Protestant branch of the Warwickshire recusant family, the Throckmortons had been established at Ellington in Huntingdonshire since 1552. The Member’s father, youngest of three brothers, had emigrated to Virginia, to lands originally acquired by his own father in the 1630s. Robert was born in America, and inherited in due course an extensive estate, comprising plantations in two counties. After his paternal uncles had both died without issue, in 1680 and 1682 respectively, he returned to England to his inheritance there, married a cousin and settled first at Potton in Bedfordshire and then over the county boundary at Stirtloe in Huntingdonshire. In 1693 he purchased the manor of Little Paxton, which he made his seat. He held at this time the rank of captain in the militia. In the 1698 general election he was chosen without opposition as knight of the shire for Huntingdon, and was marked as a supporter of the Country party in a comparative analysis of the old and new Parliaments. However, he left little, if any, impression on the House. He received leave of absence on 21 Feb. 1699 because of ill-health, and died just over a fortnight later on 9 Mar. He was buried at Little Paxton, where his monument, erected at the behest of an aunt, proclaimed that although

he was not so happy as to have a liberal education . . . that defect was abundantly compensated for by the probity of his life and his constant adherence to the interest of his country, which got him a general and deserved esteem.

In his will, drawn up on 1 Mar., he divided his English property between his first two sons, the younger being then an infant, and his Virginia plantations between his two brothers.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. Wm. and Mary Q. iii. 47–49; iv. 54–55; Virginia Hist. Mag. viii. 84–86; Fenland N. and Q. vi. 225; PCC 74 Cottle; Lansd. 921, f. 20; Trans. Cambs. and Hunts. Arch. Soc. vii. 28; F. A. Blaydes, Genealogia Bedfordiensis, 42, 47, 231; Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1680–99, p. 34.
  • 2. R. Fox, Hist. Godmanchester, 175.
  • 3. Trans. Cambs. and Hunts. Arch. Soc. i. 313; ii. 249; vii. 26–28; Virginia Hist. Mag. 83–86; G. C. Greer, Early Virginia Immigrants, 328; Wm. and Mary Q. iii. 49; iv. 202; Blaydes, 47; VCH Hunts. ii. 332; iii. 45.