Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, 1st Baronet

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet, (born January 22, 1571, Denton, Huntingdonshire [now in Cambridgeshire], England—died May 6, 1631, Westminster, London), English antiquarian, the founder of the Cottonian Library, and a prominent Parliamentarian in the reign of Charles I. The collection of historical documents that he amassed in his library eventually formed the basis of the manuscript collection of the British Museum (founded 1753).

Graduating from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1585, Cotton took a house near Old Palace Yard, Westminster, and there began to assemble a collection of manuscripts, books, and coins, which he supplemented throughout his life. It became a meeting place for scholars, who were allowed to use the library freely. Cotton was knighted upon the accession of King James I. In 1611 he presented to the king a historical Inquiry into the Crown Revenues, in which he supported the creation of the order of baronets as a means of raising money. In the same year, he himself received the title.

After this, however, Cotton’s favour at court began to decline. His acquisition of so many public documents had aroused misgivings, and in 1615 he was involved in the disgrace of his patron, Robert Carr, the earl of Somerset, and was arrested. Cotton received no formal trial and was pardoned eight months later, but he never regained his standing at court. Moreover, he began increasingly to oppose Stuart methods of taxation. The circulation in the House of Commons of his notes during the debate on supply in 1625 materially contributed to the decision to grant Charles I that tax for one year only. His The Reign of Henry III was published in 1627 in the face of a government threat to prosecute the printers, and in 1628 the opposition leaders, Sir John Eliot, John Pym, and Sir Simonds D’Ewes, used his house as their headquarters. Cotton himself had entered Parliament in 1601.

Finally, the publication of his political tract, entitled The Danger wherein the Kingdome now standeth and the Remedie (1628), and the circulation of another, a Proposition to Bridle Parliament, caused his imprisonment in 1629 and the sealing up of his library. His trial fortunately coincided with the birth of the future Charles II, and he was released in honour of the event, but his library was not restored, and his zest for life was destroyed. After his death, his son, Sir Thomas (1594–1662), regained possession of the library and greatly enlarged it. Sir John, the 4th baronet, presented it to the nation in 1700.