Robert Brightiffe or Britiffe (c. 1666 – 22 September 1749), of

Baconsthorpe Baconsthorpe is a village and civil parish in the North Norfolk district of the English county of Norfolk. It is 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Holt, 5 miles (8 km) south of Sheringham and 20 miles (32 km) north of Norwich. Popul ...

, Norfolk, was an English lawyer and Whig politician. He sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1715 to 1734 and served as

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in 1737–1743.

Background and education

Brightiffe was born at Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, the son of Edmund Brightiffe,

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the ra ...

, and his wife Mary Longe, daughter of Robert Longe of Spixworth, Norfolk. Brightiffe was educated at Baconsthorpe, at Holt School and in Norwich. He was admitted to

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

on 24 March 1680, at the age of 16.John Venn: ''Biographical Dictionary of Gonvile and Caius College...'', Vol I (1349–1713
Retrieved 19 August 2018.
/ref> He subsequently entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

on 29 May 1682, and was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1688. Brightiffe married Judith Edgar, daughter of Henry Edgar of Eye, Suffolk; she died in 1705. In 1704 Brightiffe was appointed Recorder of Lynn and held the post until 1730. He married as his second wife Elizabeth Rant, daughter of Sir William Rant of Thorpe Market, Norfolk; she died in 1712. As a Norwich lawyer, he acted as legal adviser to the Townshend and Walpole families.

Political career

Brightiffe was returned as Whig

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

at the

1715 general election Events For dates within Great Britain and the British Empire, as well as in the Russian Empire, the "old style" Julian calendar was used in 1715, and can be converted to the "new style" Gregorian calendar (adopted in the British Empire i ...

. He followed his patrons into opposition between 1717 and 1720, and thereafter voted with the Government. He was returned again at the elections of

1722 Events January–March * January 27 – Daniel Defoe's novel ''Moll Flanders'' is published anonymously in London. * February 10 – The Battle of Cape Lopez begins off of the coast of West Africa (and present-day Gabon), as ...

and

1727 Events January–March * January 1 – (December 21, 1726 O.S.) Spain's ambassador to Great Britain demands that the British return Gibraltar after accusing Britain of violating the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Britain ...

. He retired in favour of "old" Horatio Walpole at the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

. He was

from 1737 to 1743.

Later life and legacy

Some time after 1735, Brightiffe married as his third wife Elizabeth Tanner, widow of Dr Thomas Tanner,

Bishop of St Asaph The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph. The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is loca ...

and daughter of Thomas Strotton of Little Melton, Norfolk. He died on 22 September 1749, leaving his property to his daughters, one by each of his first two marriages. One married

John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire, (11 October 169322 September 1756) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1728, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Hobart. Early life Hobart was the son of Si ...

, and the other, Sir William Morden Harbord, 1st Baronet.

Gallery

File:-2020-09-19 Memorial to Elizabeth and Robert Britiffe, Parish church of Saint Margaret, Thorpe Market.JPG, Memorial in Thorpe Market, Norfolk

References

1660s births 1749 deaths Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies People educated at Gresham's School People from Baconsthorpe {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub