Robert Corbet (died April 1676) was an English politician who supported Parliament in the English Civil War. He was a member of the Shropshire county committee, responsible for pursuing the war against the royalists and represented Shropshire in the First Protectorate Parliament. He is particularly known as the employer and mentor of Richard Gough, author of the Antiquities and Memoirs of the Parish of Myddle, a pioneering work of ethnographic literature, in which he is mentioned repeatedly.
Background, education and early life Robert Corbet's background was in the landed gentry of Shropshire, a county which had no resident aristocracy in the 16th century,Coulton p.40 and acquired one only slowly through the sale of honours by James I and Charles I. His parents were cousins once removed,Corbet, p.272 both members of the powerful Corbet family. Thomas Corbet of Stanwardine Hall, at Stanwardine in the Woods, near Baschurch, Shropshire. The Stanwardine branch of the Corbets were founded by Thomas's father, the first Robert Corbet of Stanwardine, a younger brother of the notable Elizabethan period Shropshire MP and administrator Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet Castle, Shropshire. Thomas Corbet died in 1615Date given as 17 December 1615 on memorial. and is buried in Baschurch parish church. Margaret Corbet, daughter of Sir Vincent Corbet of Moreton Corbet, and granddaughter of the first Sir Andrew. She had a brother, also Sir Andrew Corbet, who was also a notable MP for Shropshire. The Corbets of Moreton Corbet remained powerful and influential in the county, but had struggled financially at least since the time of Richard Corbet (died 1606), Sir Vincent's spendthrift elder brother, who left debts of more than £6000.Corbet, p.306P.W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558-1603 - CORBET, Richard II (c.1545-1606), of Moreton Corbet, Salop. - Author: J.J.C., accessed 3 October 2013. Richard Gough referred to Margaret as Elizabeth,Gough, p.46 which may have been another of her names but could be simply a slip, as Robert Corbet's wife was named Elizabeth: both names were used for his daughters.Familysearch Community Trees, Person ID I102297: Robert Corbet
Robert Corbet's birth date is unknown, but the dating of his career suggests the first decade of the 17th century, possibly the last years of the 16th century. Gough calls him a Master in Chancery, which would have necessitated a considerable period of a legal training and of practice in London.
Family tree Corbet's relationship to other politically important Shropshire Corbets, particularly those of the Civil war period, is illustrated in the family tree below.
Political career
Offices held Corbet was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1636, during the period of Charles I's absolute monarchy, known as Thorough, when he was compelled to make ship money returns to the government in London. Subscription required. This would mean he was pricked in November 1635, while a second cousin, Sir John Corbet, was held in the Fleet Prison for resisting extra-Parliamentary taxation.Coulton, p.87. Subscription required: free to most UK public library members. His tenure of the shrievalty suggests that Robert Corbet was not as yet a known opponent of the regime, as the appointment lay in the hands of central government and nominations were vetted by the Lord Lieutenant of the county, the staunchly royalist John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater. It also confirms that Robert Corbet was by this time resident in Shropshire. Oddly, Augusta Corbet, the family historian, states that Corbet died in 1636. This may be because a Robert Corbet, probably his first son, was buried that year at Baschurch. So it is likely that he had recently returned to Shropshire and married.
Gough's recital of Corbet's offices states that he was ”Justice of Peace and quorum Custos Rotulorum of this County, and a Master in Chancery.” Corbet is not included in recent lists of the custodes of Shropshire.Institute of Historical Research: Custodes Rotulorum 1544-1646: Shropshire. Institute of Historical Research: Custodes Rotulorum 1660-1690: Shropshire. However, there is a wide lacuna between the last mention of Bridgewater as custos in 1636 and the appointment of Francis, Lord Newport in 1660. There is no doubt surrounding his activities as a JP: he was frequently present at the Quarter Sessions, especially during the Interregnum.Wakeman, p.v
The Civil War
On the outbreak of civil war, the town of Shrewsbury and its county fell into royalist hands, as the king had opened serious hostilities by taking advantage of a policy of non-resistance, declared by the largely Puritan and parliamentarian but deeply worried town council of Shrewsbury on 30 August. He led his main field army from Nottingham, where he had raised his standard on 23 August 1642, to Shrewsbury, which he occupied on 20 September.Sherwood, p.4-5 When the royalist army departed on 12 October, the town was left under a royalist garrison, with Sir Francis Ottley as military governor.Sherwood, p.6 The king and Ottley issued a series of proscription lists, outlawing a wide range of Puritans and Parliamentarian sympathisers in the county.Coulton, p.94-95 These proved more numerous than the king's warm welcome at Shrewsbury had suggested, not least because the royalist soldiers were ill-paid and took to looting in both towns and countryside. Robert Corbet's name appears in Ottley's papers on a list of ten indicted at the Spring assizes of 1643 for acts of disloyalty. He was "charged for speaking certain words tending to treason" on the word of Sir Paul Harris, 2nd Baronet, of Boreatton.Phillips (ed), 1895, Ottley Papers, p.271. The editor was unconvinced that this was Robert Corbet of Stanwardine, apparently unaware of his record as a Roundhead, but could suggest no one else. As he was bailed by two of the most eminent men in the region, Richard Newport, 1st Baron Newport and Timothy Turner, it is most likely that it was him. It is not likely that he appeared to face the accusation; by the time of the assizes he was already a member of Shropshire's parliamentary committee, which was set up in February 1643Coulton, p.96 and federated with its counterparts in Staffordshire and Warwickshire in April.Coulton, p.95
The committee was an expansion of or replacement for the triumvirate of William Pierrepont, Sir John Corbet, and Richard More, appointed to the county by parliament in July 1642. Sir John and More, both seasoned opponents of the king and of William Laud,Coulton, p.90 remained central to the committee. As well as Robert Corbet it included Thomas Hunt, the MP for Shrewsbury; the soldier Thomas Mytton of Halston; the lawyer Humphrey Mackworth; and Andrew Lloyd of Aston near Oswestry.Sherwood, p.64 The committee found it difficult to gain a foothold in its own county, mainly because the parliamentary commander in the region, Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh was lethargic and was soon accused of disloyalty. However, the committee members decided to act on their own initiative. With the support of Sir William Brereton,Coulton, p. 96 who commanded the parliamentary forces in Cheshire, Mytton, Mackworth and Hunt established a small garrison at the small market town of Wem around the end of August. In October they withstood a determined assault by royalist troops under Lord Capel. The townspeople rallied behind the defenders and a rhyme declared: The women of Wem, and a few musketeers,Beat the Lord Capel, and all his Cavaliers.
Robert Corbet seems to have moved to Wem immediately and stayed there throughout the greater part of the fighting. In December he and Lloyd wrote to Mackworth, who was in London for Laud's trial, pointing out that both Wem and Nantwich were under threat, the countryside was being plundered and Irish troops were reinforcing the royalists. They asked him to "represent our forlorne condition to the Parliament, for whom we have desperately engaged our estates and lives."Coulton, p.98 January 1644 brought some relief, as Brereton and Lord Faifax came to the rescue of Wem, while Mytton defeated a royalist force at Ellesmere. Pressure was renewed in March, when Prince Rupert of the Rhine arrived in Shropshire to shore up the royalist position. The fighting of Spring 1644 occasioned one of Gough's best-known anecdotes, involving one of Robert Corbet's employees, who had evidently followed him to war. Parliament had ordered the hanging of captured Irish soldiers and 13 were executed, including two taken at Myddle. Subsequently, some parliamentarian soldiers were captured by Rupert's men. The next day the Prince caused these prisoners to bee brought before him, and ordered thirteen of them to bee hangd. They cast the dice on a drum head, to see who should dye, and amongst them there was one Phillip Litleton, who had been servant and keeper of the parke to my old master, Robert Corbett of Stanwardine, Esqr. This Phillip saw Sir Vincent Corbett, of Morton Corbett, ride by, and said to some that stood by, “if Sir Vincent Corbett did know that I were here, hee would save my life." Upon this a charitable soldier roade after Sir Vincent and told him what one of the prisoners sayed. Hee came back immediately, and seeing Phillip, hee alighted from his horse and fell on his knees beefore the Prince, (who sate there on horsebacke to see the execution,) and beggd for the life of Phillip, which was readily granted on condition hee would never beare arms against the King. Phillip promised and escaped, and afterwards noe more Irish were hangd.Gough, p.42
Rupert's force was drawn away to help the royalists at York and was part of the army defeated by the parliamentary forces at the Battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644. However, he was able to escape with most of his troops and was soon back in the West Midlands.Coulton, p.100-101 Divisions were appearing on both sides: Rupert was forced to replace the governor of Shrewsbury twice and the Shropshire committee began to fracture, with most of the members alienated from the high-handed Mytton. The committee members initially concealed from Mytton their evolving plans for the taking of Shrewsbury, where discontent with the royalist regime was prevalent. They had difficulty maintaining their small garrisons at Moreton Corbet and Stoke upon Tern as they gathered resources for the attack on the county town.Coulton, p.102Sherwood, p.110 Not until February 1645 were they able to take Shrewsbury, largely through the work of the Dutch professional soldier William Reinking, who exploited an entrance provided by Sir William Owen, a former MP and tenant of the Council house.Coulton, p.103-104 However, Mytton claimed the credit and he and Reinking wrote their own divergent accounts of the venture.Sherwood, p.124-125
With the fall of Shrewsbury, the Shropshire parliamentary committee was at last able to install itself at the centre of the county. They were turned into an ad hoc town council and elected Mackworth governor, passing over Mytton, a local man who might have had a good claim to the post. Corbet seems to have been an ally of Mackworth: they were together publicly at quarter sessions and parliament until Mackworth's death in December 1654.
Puritanism Much of Corbet's public life after Parliament's victory in the First English Civil War revolved around the imposition of a Presbyterian structure on the Church in Shropshire and the maintenance of public order as a justice of the peace. Gough seems to suggest he was a moderate Puritan. Thomas More was installed as Rector of Myddle by Bridgewater and fled during fighting in the area.