WROTH, Robert II (c.1576-1614), of Enfield, Mdx. and Loughton, Essex.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1576, 1st s. of Robert Wroth I of Enfield and Loughton by Susan, da. and h. of John Stonard of Loughton. educ. G. Inn 1594. m. 27 Sept. 1602, Mary, da. of (Sir) Robert Sidney afterwards Earl of Leicester, 1s. Kntd. 1603; suc. fa. 1606.

Offices Held

Gent. pens. 1601/2-d.; keeper of Walthamstow and Leyton walks, Essex 1603; sheriff, Essex 1613-14.

Biography

Wroth owed his return to Parliament for Newtown to the captain of the Isle of Wight, Lord Hunsdon (Sir George Carey), who had directed the corporation of the borough to send him their writ blank. Wroth did not play any recorded part in the proceedings of the Parliament, and did not sit again until 1607 when he came in for Middlesex at a by-election. His appointment as gentleman pensioner brought him admission to the court, and a fortunate marriage to the beautiful Mary Sidney. James I often hunted with him at Loughton, where he enlarged the house and became famous for his hospitality, described by Ben Jonson in his poem The Forest, dedicated to Wroth.

Wroth’s only child was a son, born ‘after long longing’ in February 1614. Wroth died the following 14 Mar. of gangrene, and estates had to be sold to satisfy the creditors. The executors were an uncle, a brother and a cousin—all named John Wroth—and the overseers were his father-in-law and the 3rd of Pembroke. Wroth’s son James died in 1616.

C142/294/87; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 132; Collins, Sidney State Pprs. i. 120; LC2/4/4; PRO Index 6801; 16779, f. 94; Oglander Mems. pp. xiii-xiv; Essex Arch. Soc. Trans. n.s. viii. 156-9; CSP Dom. 1611-18, pp. 37, 83, 121, 158; VCH Essex, iv. 120; PCC 60 Lawe.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A.G.R.S.

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.