Robert Vansittart (judge)

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Robert Vansittart (December 28, 1728 – January 31, 1789) was an English judge, antiquarian and social figure. He was the son of Arthur Vansittart and Martha, daughter of Sir John Stonhouse, 3rd Baronet, and the elder brother of Henry Vansittart. He grew up in Shottesbrooke, Berkshire, and was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford, becoming a fellow of All Souls College in 1748. In 1753 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple.

He held several local judicial posts, serving as recorder of Maidenhead in 1758 and of Newbury in 1764. In 1767 he was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, a position he held until his death. He wrote antiquarian works in his spare time.

Vansittart was a well-connected social figure who befriended Samuel Johnson, William Hogarth, and Paul Whitehead, and he was involved with the Hellfire Club. He died in Oxford in 1789, unmarried. A character in a Goethe comedy is named after him, after they met in Italy.