RICH, Sir Robert, 4th Bt. (1685-1768), of Roos Hall, Suff.

After serving under Marlborough, Rich was returned in 1715 for Dunwich, which his father had represented 1689-99. A Whig, he voted for the septennial bill in 1716, but was one of the army officers who were deprived of their regiments for voting against the Government in the division on Lord Cadogan in 1717.Pol. State, xiv. 80. Though appointed in 1718 to the household of the Prince of Wales, who was then in opposition, he voted with the Government on the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and on the peerage bill in 1719. Defeated at Dunwich in 1722, but subsequently brought in for Bere Alston and St. Ives by his friend, Sir John Hobart, he was given another regiment, thereafter voting with the Government in all recorded divisions. Retiring from Parliament in 1741, he served with his regiment in the war of the Austrian succession and was present at Dettingen. He died 1 Feb. 1768, worth £100,000.HMC Carlisle, 238.