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Baron Lexington

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A title borne in the English family of Sutton from 1645 to 1723. Robert Sutton (1594-1668), son of Sir William Sutton of Averham, Nottinghamshire, was a member of parliament for his native county in 1625 and again in 1640. He served Charles I. during the Civil War, making great monetary sacrifices for the royal cause, and in 1645 the king created him Baron Lexington, this being a variant of the name of the Nottinghamshire village of Laxton. His estate suffered during the time of the Commonwealth, but some money was returned to him by Charles II. He died on the 13th of October 1668. His only son, Robert, the 2nd baron (1661-1723), supported in the House of Lords the elevation of William of Orange to the throne, and was employed by that king at court and on diplomatic business. He also served as a soldier, but he is chiefly known as the British envoy at Vienna during the conclusion of the treaty of Ryswick, and at Madrid during the negotiations which led to the treaty of Utrecht. He died on the 19th of September 1723. His letters from Vienna, selected and edited by the Hon. H. M. Sutton, were published as the Lexington Papers (1851). Lexington's barony became extinct on his death, but his estates descended to the younger sons of his daughter Bridget (d. 1734), the wife of John Manners, 3rd duke of Rutland. Lord George Manners, who inherited these estates in 1762, is the ancestor of the family of Manners-Sutton. An earlier member of this family is Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln from 1280 to 1299.