BROWN, Sir Robert, 1st Bt. (d.1760), of Wiggenhall St. Mary, Norf.

Sir Robert Brown, a rich merchant of Venice,HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 139. noted for his avarice,Walpole to Montagu, 25 Oct. 1760. wrote from Venice to Lord Essex, the British ambassador at Turin, in May 1734:

My pursuit relating to the next election will be attended with little trouble and no expense to myself; which are circumstances I like very much, though it may perhaps make the event in my behalf less certain. I do not so much as know yet for what place I am to be put up, but I have had repeated assurances in many letters, to give me an entire confidence relating to what was intended of this kind in my favour.Add. 27733, f. 65.

Elected in his absence for Ilchester, he returned to England, voting consistently with the Administration. The 1st Lord Egmont, who leased a house in Pall Mall to him, described him as ‘a very devoted man to Sir Robert Walpole, and every day with him (for I’m told he manages money for him in the public funds)’.HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 286. After Walpole’s fall he continued to support the Government. Classed as an Old Whig in 1746, he did not stand again. He died 5 Oct. 1760.