WROTH, Robert (1660-1720), of Burpham, nr. Guildford, Surr.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1705 - 1708
1710 - 3 Feb. 1711
31 Dec. 1717 - 4 Feb. 1720

Family and Education

bap. 27 Aug. 1660, 2nd s. of Sir Henry Wroth of Durrants, Enfield, Mdx. by Anne Maynard, da. of William, 2nd Baron Maynard; gd.-s. of Henry Wroth by Jane Harris. m. 1687, Knightly, da. of Humphry Wyrley, prothonotary of court of common pleas, 2s. 3da. suc. aunt Mary, illegit da. of Sir Francis Wolley by Jane Harris and w. of Sir John Wyrley of Hamstead, Staffs. at Burpham 1676.1

Offices Held

Cornet, independent tp. of Horse 1685; ensign 4 Tp. Horse Gren. Gds. 1686, lt. 1687, capt. 1688; lt.-col. R. Horse Gds. 1703-8; brig.-gen. 1707; maj.-gen. 1710.

Clerk of the Green Cloth 1715-d.

Biography

Wroth owned an estate near Guildford, carrying with it a considerable interest in the borough, for which he sat in 1705 and again in 1710, when he was unseated ‘for not being acceptable to those who were then in power’, i.e. the Tory majority of the House of Commons. At George I’s accession he was made a clerk of the Green Cloth by the ‘procurement or assistance’ of the 1st Lord Onslow, for whose family he had always shown ‘an unalterable attachment’.2 Brought in for Guildford by the 2nd Lord Onslow, at a by-election in 1717, he voted with the Administration till his death, 4 Feb. 1720.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Essex Arch. Soc. Trans. n.s. viii. 145 et seq; Shaw, Staffs. ii. 115; N. and Q. (ser. 8), iv. 252; PCC 3 Bunce.
  • 2. HMC 14th Rep. IX, 503.