Sir Robert Cotton (2 May 1644 – 17 September 1717) was an English politician. He sat as a

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 o ...

from 1679 to 1701 and briefly in 1702.

Life

He was the third son of Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet, the second by Sir Thomas's second wife Alice. He was granted the manor of Hatley,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

by his half-brother in 1662, the year of his father's death. He sat as a

for

from 1679 to 1695, for

Newport, Isle of Wight Newport is the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England. The town is slightly north of the centre of the island, and is in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke. It has a quay at the head of the na ...

from 1695 to 1701 and briefly for

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

in 1702. He was selected as

High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire 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 to ...

for Jan–Nov 1688. A

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

, he was one of the joint holders of the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

position from 1691 after the dismissal of John Wildman.''The House of Commons 1690-1715'', Volume 2, edited by David Hayton, Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley, pp. 744-5.
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References

1644 births 1717 deaths Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1689–1690 English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698 English MPs 1698–1700 English MPs 1701–1702 High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire United Kingdom Postmasters General Younger sons of baronets {{18thC-England-MP-stub