COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, BART., eldest son of Thomas Cotton MP, Conington, Hunts., and his first wife Elizabeth, dau. of Francis Shirley, Staunton Harold, Leics.; b. 22 Jan 1570/1; at school under Grant (GEC, Complete Baronetage, i, 45); Jesus Coll. Cambridge, matr. 22 Nov 1581; BA 1585/6; collected manuscripts and coins; settled in Cotton House, Old Palace Yard, Westminster, which became a resort for scholars and antiquaries; made antiquarian tour with his old schoolmaster William Camden, 1600; knighted 11 May 1603; a favourite at court in the early years of the reign of James I; MP Huntingdonshire 1604-11, Old Sarum 1624, Thetford 1625, Castle Rising 1628-9; created baronet 29 Jun 1611; contributed to Speed’s History of England, 1611, and to Camden’s History of Elizabeth 1615; imprisoned Oct 1615- Jun 1616 for trying to screen his patron, the Earl of Somerset, by altering dates of letters; became friendly with Sir John Eliot, and in 1625 openly attached himself to the parliamentary opposition to the Crown; author, History of Henry III, 1627, and The Dangers wherein the Kingdom now standeth and the Remedye, 1628; treated as an enemy by the court in 1628-9, and after proceedings in the Star Chamber was deprived of access to his library; this library, which was later to form the nucleus of the library of the British Museum (now British Library), was moved to Ashburnham House in 1730, suffering damage by fire there on 23 Oct 1731, and was then temporarily housed in the Old Dormitory; m. 1592 Elizabeth, dau. of William Brocas, Theddingworth, Leics.; d. 6 May 1631. DNB.
