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.
Portrait of Robert Cotton, commissioned 1626 and attributed to Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen
A bust of Cotton by Louis-François Roubiliac in the British Museum
Robert Cotton in 1629, the year that he was forced to close the Cotton library by Charles I because the content within the library was believed to be harmful to the interests of the Royalists
Cotton Nero A.x
Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet, of Conington was an English politician and heir to the Cottonian Library.
Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington
…was an heiress. Their subsequent marital history suggests that perhaps these factors outweighed personal compatibility. By Elizabeth, Cotton had a son: Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet (1594–1662). Sir Thomas in turn married Margaret Howard, by whom he had a son, Sir John Cotton (born 1621). Sir Robert had an extensive circle of friends…
A painting of Thomas Cotton by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen