Robert Pierrepont (1584 - 1643)

Born 5 Aug 1584 in Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Gertrude (Talbot) Pierrepont — married 8 Jan 1601 in Kinolton, Nottinghamshire, England

Descendants

Died 21 Jul 1643 at age 58 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England

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Biography

Robert Pierrepont was a member of the aristocracy in England.

The son and heir of Sir Henry Pierrepont of Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire, and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth, Derbyshire, Robert entered Oriel College, Oxford, in 1596, and was admitted to Gray's Inn in January 1599/1600. ^[1]

He succeeded his father to estates mostly in south and west Nottinghamshire in 1616, and subsequently spent vast sums of money on purchasing further land, mostly in Nottinghamshire.

He was elected as M.P. for Nottinghamshire in 1601, aged 17, under the patronage of his uncle Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1608 he sat as a J.P. for Nottinghamshire for the first time, and he served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1615. On 29 June 1627 he was created Baron Pierrepont of Holme Pierrepont, and Viscount Newark. On 25 July 1628 he was created Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull.

All these honours were purchased. He was not a prominent Parliamentarian or local administrator, preferring to concentrate on the acquisition and maintenance of his estates.

Reluctant to take either side in the Civil War, in 1643 he eventually raised a regiment of foot on behalf of the King, and was appointed Lieutenant General of Royalist forces in Lincolnshire, Rutland, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Norfolk. He was taken prisoner at Gainsborough, and while on board a vessel bound for Hull was accidentally shot and killed by Royalist fire on 25 July 1643. He was buried at Cuckney.

Birth

5 Aug 1584 ^[2]

Marriage

He married Gertrude, daughter of the Hon. Henry Talbot, January 8 1601/2 ^[3] (who died 1649), and had:

1. Henry (1607-1680), later 2nd Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull and Marquess of Dorchester
2. William (c.1608-1678), M.P., of Thoresby Hall, Nottinghamshire, and Tong Castle, Shropshire
3. Francis
4. Gervase (1620-1679)
5. Robert
6. George
7. Frances
8. Mary
9. Elizabeth (1624-1696)

Death

21 Jul 1643 ^[4]

Burial

"initially buried on 25 July 1643 at Cuckney" ... "The earl's body was later taken to Holme Pierrepont... In a lead coffin lined with red velvet..." ^[5]

Sources

• Marshall, George William. The Visitations of the County of Nottingham in the Years 1569 and 1614 (London, 1871) Page 51
• Pierrepont Genealogies from Norman times to 1913, Page 23
• Godfrey, John Thomas. Notes on the Churches of Nottinghamshire: Hundred of Bingham (Phillimore, 1907) Page 246.

• His burial is thus recorded in the register at Cuckney, Notts.: "1643, Robert Pearpoint, the Earle of Kingstone upon Hull was Buried the 25 of July."

• Nottinghamshire Parish Registers, Marriages. Phillimore’s Parish Register Series (Phillimore & Co., London, 1899) Vol. 2: Bingham Wapentake: South Part. Page 101.
• Title deeds and estate papers relating to the Earl's ownership of his estates are held at The British Library (Egerton Charters 2301-8836; Egerton MSS 3516-3660)
• P. R. Seddon, ‘Pierrepont, Robert, first earl of Kingston upon Hull (1584–1643)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [available online to subscribers, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22230]
• 'Pierrepont, Robert', in P.W. Hasler (ed), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1558-1603 (London : Published for the History of Parliament Trust by H.M.S.O, 1981)
• Biography of Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (1584-1643), Manuscripts and Special Collections, Kings Meadow Campus, Nottingham, England NG72NR
• Burke, John & Burke, Bernard. A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland (Henry Colburn, 1846) Page 419
• Moffat, R. Burnham. Pierrepont Genealogies from Norman times to 1913 (L. Middleditch Company, 1913) Page 23

• Page 124: A Visit to Holme-Pierrepont, "...Opposite these pictures hangs one of the first Earl of Kingston and three handsome females, said to have been his mistresses, - a fair specimen of the morals of the time of Charles 1st."

• Griffiths, George. A History of Tong, Shropshire (Horne & Bennion, 1894) Page 81-2

"At the breaking out of the Great Rebellion, Lord Pierrepoint was appointed by King Charles Lieut.-General of the Royal Forces within the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, &c.; subsequently surprised at Gainsborough and made prisoner by Lord Willoughby of Parham, he was sent towards Hull in a pinnace (or small boat), which being pursued by Sir Charles Cavendish (who demanded the Earl and was refused) was shot at by that gentleman with a drake (a small piece of artillery); the Earl and his servant were palced as a mark to Sir Charles's shot, and wer both killed 13 July, 1643."

• Priestland, Pamela. From Domesday to Dukedom and Beyond (Ashbracken, Radclife-on-Trent, Nottingham, England, 2010) Page 11, 13, 107.
• The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (J. Hinton, London, Nov. 1767) Page 251
• Hood, John. An Account of St. Mary's Church, Nottingham (Cooke & Vowles, Nottingham, 1910) Page 78-79: Sir Robert Pierrepont
• Foster, Joseph. The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 (The Hansard Publishing Union, Ltd., London, 1889) Page 98: "1599-1600. Jan. 28, Robert Pierrepoint, son and heir apparent of Henry Pierrepoint, of Holme Pierrepoint, Notts."
• Harleian Society:Visitation Series. The Visitations of the County of Nottingham in the Years 1569 and 1614., The Publications of The Harleian Society (The Society, London, 1871) Vol. 4, Page 56
• Sussex Archaeological Society. Sussex Archaeological Collections (H.Wolff, Lewes, England, 1859) Vol. 11, Page 57
• Foster, Joseph, Alumni Oxonienses (Parker and Co., 1892) Early Series 189 (1500-1714)

• Vol. 3, Page 1163: "viscount Newark and earl of Kingston; created D.C.L. 1 Nov. 1642, sometime gent. commoner of Oriel Coll. (s. Sir Henry, of Holme Pierrepont), of Gray's Inn 1600, M.P. Notts 1601, lieut.-general of the king's forces, killed near Gainsborough, co. Loncoln, 30 July, 1643; father of Henry, marquis of Dorchester, aforesaid. See Fasti, ii, 36; & Foster's Parliamentary Dictionary."

• The University of Nottingham, "Manuscripts and Special Collections", Biography of Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (1584-1643)
• Brown, Cornelius. Lives of Nottinghamshire Worthies and of Celebrated and Remarkable Men of the Country, From the Norman Conquest to A.D. 1882 (H. Sotheran, London, 1882) Page 179-80
• Ellis, William Smith. Hurstpierpoint: Its Lords and Families, Ancient and Modern (1866) Page 18

• "June 29, 1627, was advanced to the dignity of a Baron of the Realm, by the title of Lord Pierrepoint, of Holme Pierrepoint, in Com. Nott. and Viscount Newark, and on July 25, next year, was create Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull."

• Dictionary of National Biography (Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1896) Vol 45. Pereira - Pockrich. Page 266-7
• University of Nottingham, The Manor of Laxton and Mark Pierce's 1635 map

The lordship of the manor of Laxton had been in the hands of the Roos family from the early-15th century. In the 16th century they built a new manor house in the grounds of Laxton's old Norman motte and bailey castle.

However, in 1618 Gilbert Roos (1592-1621) was forced to sell the manor of Laxton, and all his family's property in the village. George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, bought the manor for £6,000, but he sold it on to Sir William Courten (1572-1634), a London merchant, in 1625. In the late 1620s Courten also bought a 66-acre farm in Laxton from Gilbert's cousin Mr Francis Roos. Members of the Roos or Roose (later Rose) family remained in Laxton, but as tenant farmers rather than landowners.

Courten ordered the surveyor Mark Pierce to undertake a survey and draw up a map in order to know what he owned. The map enables us to see the exact state of the manor at that time. But Courten died soon afterwards, and his son, also called William, went bankrupt. In 1640 the manor was sold again. The new purchaser was Robert Pierrepont (1584-1643), 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, a member of an old Nottinghamshire family based at Holme Pierrepont Hall.

• Treasures of the Bodleian: The Laxton Map
• Southwell & Nottingham Church History Project, Holme Pierrepont, St Edmund, Crypt,1. Robert, 1st Earl of Kingston, laid (?) July 27th, 1643
• Thoroton, Robert. The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire (London, 1677) Page 87
• Standish, John. Transactions of the Thoroton Society (Cooke & Vowles, 1927) Vol. 31, Page ?

• "During the Parliamentarian wars the Earl attempted to maintain neutrality, and his sons were divided in their opinions between the Parliamentarian and the Royalist causes. Circumstances compelled the Earl to throw in his lot with the King, and he took part in the fighting at Gainsborough, where unfortunately for him his arms were unsuccessful and he was captured. He was put into a boat, together with other prisoners, for convoy to Hull, but his friends attempted a rescue, and during the skirmish consequent upon this attempt a stray bullet struck the Earl and mortally wounded him."

• Musgrave, William. Obituary Prior to 1800, The Publications of The Harleian Society (The Society, London, 1900) Visitation Series. Vol. 46, Page 378.
• Fuller, Thomas. The History of The Worthies of England (London, 1840) Vol. 2, Page 581-3.
• Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Part II. Appendix & Index, Vol. 9, Historical Manuscripts Commission (Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1884) Page 375.

• "Note of the birth of Robert Pierrepont, afterwards Earl of Kingston, 6 Aug. 1584, and descriptions of his life, complexion, disposition, riches, marriage, children, journeys, amours and reputation, friends and enemies, and death. 3 pp. (These seem to be prognostications)."

Footnotes

1. ↑ Foster(1889)
2. ↑ Priestland: Page 107, "10:30 a.m. on 5 August 1584"
3. ↑ Priestland: Page 86, citing the "Holme Pierrepont register"
4. ↑ Priestland: Page 155, Coffin plate in the crypt of St. Edmond's church at Holme Pierrepont
5. ↑ Priestland: Page 154