Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Combermere
Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Combermere (about 1635 – 18 December 1712) was an English Whig politician. He served as Member of Parliament for Cheshire from 1679 to 1681 and again from 1689 to 1702.
He was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Cotton of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire, and Elizabeth Calveley, daughter of Sir George Calveley of Lea. His ancestor Sir George Cotton was granted Combermere by Henry VIII around 1541. In 1677 he was made Baronet of Combermere in the County Palatine of Chester.
In 1685 he was accused of treasonable correspondence with the Electress of Hanover, Sophia, and was sent to the Tower of London by the Earl of Sunderland, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department. He was eventually partly cleared of the charges thanks to testimony from some of his political opponents.
Cotton was a strong Whig and an opponent of James II. He welcomed the Glorious Revolution but did not play a leading role in politics afterward. Historians note his voting as proto-“Country” politics, which annoyed some independent Whigs. He was seen as principled and honest.
In 1684 he married Hester Salusbury, daughter and sole heir of Royalist Sir Thomas Salusbury and his wife Hester Tyrrell. Through this marriage, the Combermere estate gained the Llewenni Estate in Denbighshire, northeast Wales.
The couple had several children (out of a possible sixteen).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:06 (CET).