Sir Robert Wilmot, 2nd Baronet (c. 1752 – 23 July 1834) was the natural son of Sir Robert Wilmot the first baronet of Osmaston Hall, who was the Secretary to the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

Biography

Robert Wilmot was born the natural son of Sir Robert Wilmot the first baronet of Osmaston Hall, the Secretary to the

. By virtue of a special remainder granted to his father he was allowed to inherit the title of the

Wilmot baronets There have been three baronetcies created for persons with the surname Wilmot, one in the Baronetage of Ireland and two in the Baronetage of Great Britain. One creation (of Chaddesden) is extant as of 2008. The Wilmot Baronetcy, of Witney in the ...

of Osmaston. Wilmot married first Juliana Elizabeth Byron, the daughter of Admiral

John Byron Vice-Admiral John Byron (8 November 1723 – 1 April 1786) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, he sa ...

on 17 September 1783 at

Pirbright Pirbright ( ) is a village in Surrey, England. Pirbright is in the borough of Guildford and has a civil parish council covering the traditional boundaries of the area. Pirbright contains one buffered sub-locality, Stanford Common near the nati ...

. Julianna was the widow of her own cousin the Hon William Byron who had been MP for Morpeth. They had an only son before his wife died in 1788. Wilmot remarried Mariana Howard in 1795, Mariana was the heiress of Charles Howard of Stafford. In the following year, Wilmot was the

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

. The couple had four other sons and two daughters

The Cope Estate and Litigation

Sir Robert was made heir to the estate of General Sir John Cope, a successful veteran the Wars of the Spanish and

Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

who had later fallen into personal misfortune following his defeat commanding the British force at the

Battle of Prestonpans The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Jacobite forces, led by the Stuart exile C ...

. Sir John had written in 1758 to Sir Robert's father, the first Osmaston baronet, of his intention to settle his estate on Sir Robert should his children by his mistress, Mrs Metcalf, die without issue. Sir John also wrote of abusive and malicious treatment by his family members which may have motivated his desire not to leave his property to his children or Cope relatives. In the event, Sir John devised to Sir Robert a life interest in his estate, with a remainder to Sir Robert's first and other sons in tail male. Sir John also settled on his son by Mrs Metcalf, John Metcalf Cope, a trust requiring the trustees to "raise, advance and pay any money... not exceeding £3,000 for the advancement of ohn Metcalf Copein any business, art or profession, or any civil or military employment". The trustees laid out £1,000 to buy John an army commission and £93.2s.6d for arms, accoutrements and a war horse. Shortly thereafter John sold the commission, ran into debt and assigned all of his income in payment of the debt. John Cope brought a suit in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

against Sir Robert for the payment of the residue of the £3,000. Wilmot's lawyers argued that the terms of the trust had only required the trustees to outlay such funds as they thought proper to secure John Cope's professional advancement and that the trust was, in any event, of a discretionary nature. The Master of the Rolls Sir Thomas Sewell disagreed, adjudging the £3,000 to be a gift and made orders for the payment of the remaining £1906.17s.6d

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmot, Robert People from Osmaston, Derby Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain 1750s births 1834 deaths