Kemp, Robert, Sir, 1st Baronet (1591 -1647)

Sir Robert Kemp was the eldest son of Robert Kemp, of Gissing in Norfolk, and Dorothy, daughter of Arthur Harris, of Crixteth in Essex. He was admitted to Gray's Inn 26 February 1605. He succeeded his father 24 April 1614. He married, before 1626, Jane, daughter of Sir Matthew Browne, of Beechworth Castle in Surrey. Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles I in 1631, and distinguished for his loyalty to the king, he was knighted at Whitehall 7 August 1641, and created a baronet 14 March 1642, all the fines and fees of passing the patent thereof being remitted. His estates suffered much during the sequestrations. The signature is probably that of his eldest son Robert, to whom he left his books and who succeeded him in the baronetcy and died in 1710. The quartering for Butvillain was relates to the fourteenth century marriage of John Kempe, of Weston, with Alice, daughter and heir of Robert Duke, of Brampton, and Julian, daughter and coheir of Sir Robert Butvilain, of Cotisbrooke, in Northamptonshire.