Corbet belonged to a cadet branch of a prominent Shropshire family, and his mother was a wealthy heiress. Like his grandfather, who had sat for Shrewsbury in Charles II’s reign, he was a Whig in politics. Returned unopposed for the county in 1705, in place of his kinsman Richard Corbet*, who was in poor health, he was classified as a ‘Churchman’ in a list of the new Parliament, but on 25 Oct. 1705 voted for the Court candidate for Speaker and in 1708 was twice listed as a Whig. At the election of that year he was again returned without opposition, having previously made sure of the interest of Richard Corbet and of other leading Whigs in the county, in case of a contest, and in 1709 voted for the naturalization of the Palatines. Although given leave of absence for a month on 18 Feb. 1710, he was included in a published list of those who had voted for the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell. In April 1710 he joined some other Whig gentlemen of Shropshire in signing an open letter to the lord lieutenant of the county, complaining against the way in which Shrewsbury’s Tories had gone about drawing up an address to the Queen in Sacheverell’s favour. He did not stand in the 1710 general election, Richard Corbet resuming his place as one of the Whig candidates for the shire; nor did he stand in 1713.4 HMC 5th Rep. 152; Staffs. RO, Bradford mss at Weston Park, Corbet to Richard Corbet, 29 Jan. 1708, John Bridgeman to Corbet, 10 Feb. 1708; Boyer, Anne Annals, ix. 185–9.
Corbet died on 3 Oct. 1740.