PIERREPONT, Robert (c. 1660-82)

Robert Pierrepont was the eldest heir male of ‘Wise’ William Pierrepont^‡, younger brother to Henry Pierrepont, marquess of Dorchester. He was travelling on the continent when he inherited within the space of two years, first his grandfather William’s substantial estate at Thoresby, Nottinghamshire, and then in 1680 the earldom and estate of his great-uncle. His great-uncle’s higher title as marquess of Dorchester was extinguished at his death. The new earl became a suitor to Elizabeth Percy, suo jure Baroness Percy, heiress to the fortune of the earls of Northumberland, but apparently she had heard ‘somewhat’ about Kingston from her first husband (and Kingston’s cousin) Henry Cavendish, styled earl of Ogle, ‘that made her slight the greatest offers he could make’. HMC Rutland, ii. 58. Kingston went abroad again in May 1682 to recover from an illness, but as Luttrell pithily noted in June, ‘The earl of Kingston went lately into France for his health, but died as soon as he arrived there’, in the port of Dieppe. Luttrell, Brief Relation, i. 199. He died intestate, and his substantial estate was put into administration during the minority of his younger brother William Pierrepont, 4th earl of Kingston.