Sir Robert Sutton (167113 August 1746) was an English diplomat and politician who 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. T ...

from 1722 to 1741.

Early life

Sutton was the elder son of Robert Sutton of

Averham Averham is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 187, increasing to 294 at the 2011 census. The village is just west of Newark-on-Trent. ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, and his wife, Katherine, the daughter of the Revd William Sherborne of

Pembridge Pembridge is a village and civil parish in Arrow valley in Herefordshire, England. The village is on the A44 road about east of Kington and west of Leominster. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Bearwood, Lower Bearwood, Lower Broxwo ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

. He was great-nephew of the 1st Baron Lexinton. He was admitted to

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

in 1688 and went on to 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 ...

in 1691.

Diplomat

Sutton was ordained a deacon and became chaplain to his cousin

Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexington PC (6 January 166219 September 1723) was an English diplomat. Family He was the son of Robert Sutton, 1st Baron Lexington and his third wife Mary St. Leger. On 14 September 1691, he married Margaret, (d. Apr ...

, English Envoy in Vienna in 1694. In 1697, he was appointed as secretary to the British legation there, and upon the departure of his cousin, became the English resident there. Lexinton then secured for him the nomination for

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

ambassador to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

on 5 December 1700, and he arrived in Adrianople on 7 January 1702. Sutton asked to be recalled on 6 May 1715. He remained there until the summer of 1717, when he travelled to Vienna, arriving on 17 September. Afterwards, he served with

Abraham Stanyan Abraham Stanyan (c. 1669–1732) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1717. He was ambassador to Austria and the Ottoman Empire. Stanyan was the eldest son of Lawrence Stanyan of Monken Hadley, Middl ...

as joint mediator at the Austro-Turkish peace congress at Passarowitz in 1718. His final diplomatic posting was as ambassador to France in 1720, but was superseded the following year. Following his return to England, he bought estates in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and

, worth nearly £5000 a year, with a house at Broughton, Lincolnshire. In Constantinople in 1704, Sutton acquired the Arabian

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

horse

Alcock's Arabian Alcock's Arabian (foaled about 1700, died about 1733), also known as Pelham Grey Arabian and less certainly as Bloody Buttocks and Ancaster Turk, among other names, is the ancestor of all grey-coloured Thoroughbred horses,Lady Wentworth, ''The S ...

with some other Arabians, and had him shipped to England. The horse is considered to be the ancestor of all grey

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

Politician and financier

Having become rich in diplomatic service, Sutton was elected Whig MP

in 1722. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council on 9 May 1722. He became a member of the committee of

Charitable Corporation The Charitable Corporation was an institution in Britain intended to provide loans at low interest to the deserving poor, including by large-scale pawnbroking. It was established by charter in 1707. Its full title was "Charitable Corporation for t ...

in 1725, and made money by insider trading in its shares.Jeremy Black, ‘Sutton, Sir Robert (1671/2–1746)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200

accessed 20 June 2009 He was expelled from the House of Commons 4 May 1732 for a false statement that the company's authorized capital had been exhausted, allowing it to issue more (and so finance the corrupt speculation of other directors). He was also sub-governor of the Royal Africa Company from 1726. However, he was elected unopposed in 1734 for Great Grimsby. Sutton married Judith Tichborne, daughter of Sir Benjamin Tichborne of Beaulieu, County Louth and Elizabeth Gibbs, and widow of

Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, KG, PC (23 April 167519 April 1722), known as Lord Spencer from 1688 to 1702, was an English statesman and nobleman from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1714–1717), Lord P ...

. Their children included

Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet (31 July 1733 – 10 January 1802), of Norwood Park in Nottinghamshire, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1796. Family background and education Sutton was the younger son of the ...

, and an older brother, Robert Sutton, who predeceased his father in November 1743.Buried at St James, Westminster, on 27 November 1743. Source: ''The Register of Burials in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster. 1723-1754''. 27 November 1743. He was also patron of the cleric

William Warburton William Warburton (24 December 16987 June 1779) was an English writer, literary critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759 until his death. He edited editions of the works of his friend Alexander Pope, and of William Shakespeare. Li ...

References

* The despatches of Sir Robert Sutton, ambassador in Constantinople, 1710–1714, ed. Akdes Minet Kurat (1953) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Robert 1671 births 1746 deaths Ambassadors of England to the Ottoman Empire Ambassadors of Great Britain to the Ottoman Empire Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath Whig (British political party) MPs Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Ambassadors of Great Britain to France 17th-century English diplomats Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Great Grimsby Expelled members of the Parliament of Great Britain

Early life

Diplomat

Politician and financier

See also

References