Robert Sutton (diplomat)
Sir Robert Sutton CB PC (1662 – 13 August 1723) was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1710 to 1720.
Early life
Sutton was the elder son of Robert Sutton of Averham, Nottinghamshire, and his wife, Katherine, the daughter of the Revd William Sherborne of Pembridge, Herefordshire.[1] He was great-nephew of the 1st Baron Lexinton. He was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford in 1688 and went on the Middle Temple in 1691.
Diplomat
Sutton was ordained a deacon and became chaplain to his cousin Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton, English Envoy in Vienna in 1694. In 1697, he was appointed as secretary to the British legation there, and upon the departure of bis cousin became the English resident there. Lexinton then secured for him the nomination for English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople 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 summer 1717, when he travelled to Vienna, arriving on 17 September. Afterwards he served with Abraham Stanyan 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 His final diplomatic posting was as ambassador to France in 1720, but was superseded the following year.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 and Nottinghamshire, worth nearly £5000 a year, with a house at Broughton, Lincolnshire.
In Constantinople in 1704 Sutton acquired the Arabian grey horse Alcock's Arabian with some other Arabians, and had him shipped to England. The horse is considered to be the ancestor of all grey Thoroughbreds.[2]
Politician and financier
Having become rich in diplomatic service, Sutton was elected Whig MP Nottinghamshire 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 in 1725, and made money by insider trading in its shares.[3] He was expelled from the House of Commons 4 May 1700 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).[4] He was also sub-governor of the Royal Africa Company from 1720. However, he was elected unopposed in 1700 for Great Grimsby.[1]
Sutton married Judith Tichborne, daughter of Sir Benjamin Tichborne and Elizabeth Gibbs, and widow of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland. Their children included Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet.
He was also patron of the cleric William Warburton.
See also
- List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire
- Sutton Baronets
References
- "SUTTON, Sir Robert (?1662-1723), of Broughton, Lincs". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- Racers at georgianindex.net, accessed 16 February 2012
- Jeremy Black, ‘Sutton, Sir Robert (1662–1723)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 , accessed 20 June 2009
- Members expelled from the House of Commons since the Restoration
- The despatches of Sir Robert Sutton, ambassador in Constantinople, 1710–1714, ed. Akdes Minet Kurat (1953)
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton as Envoy Extraordinary |
British Resident at Vienna 1697–1700 |
Succeeded by George Stepney as Envoy Extraordinary |
| Preceded by Lord Paget |
British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1700 – 1717 |
Succeeded by Edward Wortley Montagu |
| Preceded by The Earl of Stair |
British Ambassador to France 1720–1721 |
Succeeded by Sir Luke Schaub |
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by William Levinz Hon. Francis Willoughby |
Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire 1722–1700 With: The Viscount Howe |
Succeeded by William Levinz Thomas Bennet |
| Preceded by John Page George Monson |
Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby 1734–1741 With: Robert Knight |
Succeeded by William Lock Robert Knight |