Robert Bruce Cotton

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (January 22 1570-May 6 1631) was an English politician, founder of a famous library.

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.