page_title: Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington
section_title: Role in Parliament
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington / Role in Parliament
caption_attribution_description: British Museum reference1924,0412.1Detailed descriptionBust of Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631), by Louis-François Roubiliac (1702-1762), terracotta. Department: Prehistory and EuropeLocationRoom 1
context_page_description: Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England, was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library.
context_section_description: Cotton supported the claim of King James VI of Scotland to succeed Queen Elizabeth I on the English throne, and after the queen's death was commissioned to write a work defending James's claim to the throne, for which he was rewarded with a knighthood in 1603. Cotton was elected to parliament for Huntingdonshire in 1604, a constituency previously represented by his grandfather. Cotton worked on the Committee on Grievances and in 1605–06 received the Bill pertaining to the Gunpowder Plot through his work on the Committee of Privileges. In 1607 he was reappointed to the Committee of Privileges. Cotton was appointed to the joint conference with the Lords during his work on the bill pertaining to the full union between Scotland and England in 1606–07. In 1610 Cotton was nominated in first place to the Committee of Privileges. In 1610/11 the royal revenues were low, and Cotton wrote Means for raising the king’s estate. In this work he suggested the formation of the baronetcy a new higher order of social rank, higher than the knight but lower than the baron.
  Cotton was not elected to the 1614 Parliament. In 1621 Cotton advised James I on the impeachment of Sir Francis Bacon concerning the respective roles of king and  Parliament. In 1624 Cotton was elected to represent Old Sarum after the previous member, Sir Arthur Ingram, decided to sit for York.
  He was subsequently elected to Parliament for Old Sarum (1624), Thetford (1625) and Castle Rising (1628).
caption: A bust of Robert Cotton by Louis-François Roubiliac
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