Naunton, Robert, Sir (1563 -1635)

Robert Naunton was the eldest son of Henry Naunton, of Alderton in Leicestershire, and Elizabeth, daughter of Everard Ashby. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1589 he accompanied his uncle William Ashby to Scotland, where Ashby was acting as English ambassador. He was employed as a courier between Ashby and the court in London, but his uncle dying in January 1590, he returned to Cambridge, and became a Fellow of Trinity Hall and Public Orator. He drew the attention of the Earl of Essex, and travelled abroad for him for a while, and after his fall, was employed on an embassy to Denmark, under the Earl of Rutland. In 1606, he entered Parliament as Member of Parliament for Helston in Cornwall, was chosen for Camelford in 1614. In 1621, 1624 and 1625 he represented the University of Cambridge, and in Charles I's first parliament he sat for Suffolk. He was knighted in 1614, and in 1616, when he ceased to be a Fellow of Trinity Hall, he became Master of Requests, and afterwards Surveyor of the Court of Wards. On the 8 January 1618 Naunton became Secretary of State. In January 1623, he voluntarily resigned the last post for a pension of £1,000 a year, and practically retired from politics, but remained Surveyor of the Court of Wards until 1634. He married Penelope, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Perrot, but their only son, James, died in infancy in 1624, and he bequeathed his property at Letherington to his brother William, whose descendants held the property until 1758. The house and almshouses he built, together with the church and the family tombs have all been pulled down.