biography text
A keen huntsman, Rous was returned for Dunwich in 1705, partly through his father’s influence and partly on the interest of his colleague Sir Charles Blois, 1st Bt.* He was listed as a ‘Churchman’, and voted against the Court candidate as Speaker on 25 Oct., writing home soon afterwards that he was ‘not pleased’ with the course political events were taking. Classed as a Tory in early 1708, he stood down at the election of that year. Rous eventually succeeded his father in April 1730, but died less than a year later on 3 Feb. 1731, at Henham. His great-nephew, the 6th baronet, was raised to the peerage in 1796 and was later created Earl of Stradbroke.1 Cal. Le Neve Corresp. 72, 104–5, 124, 180, 182–4; Boyer, Pol. State, xli. 212.