Robert Bruce Cotton

He was of Huntingdonshire parentage and educated at Westminster School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He had become interested in antiquarian studies under William Camden, and began to amass a library. He entered Parliament as a member for Huntingdon in 1601. Despite an early period of goodwill with James I of England, who made him a baronet, Cotton's politics became anti-royalist in nature and the authorities began to fear the uses of his library, which was sealed in 1630.