Robert RICH

(2nd E. Warwick)

Born: Jun 1587

Died: 19 Apr 1658, Felsted, Essex

Father: Robert RICH (1° E. Warwick)

Mother: Penelope DEVEREUX (B. Rich)

Married 1: Frances HATTON (dau. of William Hatton and Elizabeth Gawdy) 12 Feb 1604/5

Children:

1. Robert RICH of Leighs

2. Anne RICH

Married 2: Eleanor WORTLEY (C. Sussex) (d. 1666) (dau. of Richard Wortley) (w.1 of Henry Lee - w.2 of Edward Radcliffe, 6º E. Sussex - m.4 Edward Montague) 30 Mar 1646, Hornsey, Middlesex

Children:

3. Charles RICH

4. Hatton RICH

5. Henry RICH

6. Lucy RICH

7. Frances RICH

8. Anne RICH

One of the performers in Ben Jonson's "Masque of Beauty" in 1608-9. Succeeded to his father's title on 24 Mar 1618/9.

He was one of the original members of the Company for the plantation of the Somers Islands (Bermuda) 29 Jun 1614, and on 3 Nov 1620 was granted a seat on the Council of the New England Company (State Papers, Col. Ser. 1574-1660, pp. 17, 25). He was also a member of the Guinea Company (founded by Sir Francis Drake), incorporated 16 Nov. 1618. At the same time he sought his fortune by "privateering" in the Elizabethan fashion.

In Apr 1618, he sent, under a commission from the Duke of Savoy, a ship called the TREASURER (owned by Rich and Lord De La Warr - "Isle of Devils," p. 131) to Virginia and the West Indies, commanded by Captain Elfrith, whose captures from the Spainiards and "unwarrantable actions" caused Warwick still greater difficulties, and were one of the causes of the division of the Virginia Company, about 1620, into two parties (some say 3), one headed by the Earl of Southampton and Sir Edwin Sandys, the other by Warwick and his kinsman, Sir Nathaniel Rich. Their disputes ran so high that in 1623 Lord Cavendish, Sir Edwin Sandys, and other opponents of Warwick were confined to their houses by order of the privy council on the charge of intemperate language and misrepresentations. Warwick gave Cavendish the lie, and they arranged a duel, which only the vigilance of the government prevented. The end of the matter was the appointment of Commissioners to inquire into the government of Virginia, and the revocation of the Company's Charter (24 Jul 1624). The King took the government into his own hands and appointed a new council, of which Warwick was a member.

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