Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/189

 on 14 Oct. 1772. In 1802 Sutton succeeded his grandfather, the first baronet, in the title and estates when only four years of age. During a long minority his wealth accumulated and he became one of the most wealthy men in the country, owning large estates in Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, and Leicestershire, and also in London, where a large portion of Mayfair belonged to him. He was admitted a fellow-commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 22 Oct. 1816, graduating M.A. in 1818. As soon as he came of age he devoted himself with great enthusiasm to field sports. The family seat was Norwood in Nottinghamshire, but he took Sudbrooke Hall, Lincolnshire, for his hunting residence, and Welting, Norfolk, for his shooting-box, and rented large moors in Aberdeenshire for grouse-shooting and deer-stalking. So devoted was he to shooting that he seldom missed a day during the season, except when he was hunting.

In 1822 Sutton became master of foxhounds, succeeding Thomas Assheton Smith [q. v.] as master of the Burton hunt in Lincolnshire. He frequently hunted six days a week, excepting for a time in 1829, when he broke his thigh. He then took a house at Lincoln, exercising profuse hospitality during his residence there. In 1844, on Lord Lonsdale's death, he removed his hunting establishment to Cottesmore Park in Rutland, where he hunted for five seasons. In 1848 he again removed to Leicestershire, residing at Quorn Hall, which he purchased on 15 Jan. 1848 from the Oliver family for 12,000l. Here he hunted for eight years, the Quorn country being considered the finest field in England, and under his lead Leicestershire enjoyed sport unsurpassed in its long sporting annals. At Quorn he kept a stud of seventy to eighty horses and seventy-nine couples of hounds, and for some years he bore the sole cost of the Quorn Hunt.

Sutton was an ardent lover of the chase, a good rider, fond of riding ‘difficult’ horses, and a good shot. He was never idle, but after his day's sport occupied himself with his flute or his books. He had a great talent for music. For politics he had a contempt, and, though often solicited, refused to stand for parliament.

He died suddenly on 14 Nov. 1855 at his town residence, Cambridge House, No. 94 Piccadilly. He was buried on the 21st at Linford, Nottinghamshire. His stud was sold on 13 and 14 Dec. following. On the first day thirty-two horses fetched 5,812 guineas, and the remainder over 1,200l. on the second day. Seventy couples of hounds produced 1,806 guineas. After his death the Quorn Hall estate was sold to Mr. Edward Warner, and the Quorn hunt was removed to Melton Mowbray.

Sutton married, a few days after he came of age, at St. Peter's in Eastgate, Lincoln, on 17 Dec. 1819, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Burton, esq., of Burton Hall, co. Carlow, and by her had seven sons and four daughters. His wife predeceased him on 1 Jan. 1842. His will was proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury on 12 Dec. 1855. An equestrian portrait of Sutton was painted by Sir F. Grant, R.A., and was engraved by Graves.

[Field, 24 Nov. 1855; Leicester Journal, 16 Nov. 1855; Times, 15 Nov. 1855; Gent. Mag. 1856, i. 80–2; Annual Register 1855, xcvii. 317–18; Burke's and Foster's Baronetages; information from W. Aldis Wright, esq., D.C.L.] 

SUTTON, ROBERT, first (1594–1668), born in 1594, was the son of Sir William Sutton of Aram or Averham, Nottinghamshire, by Susan, daughter of Thomas Cony of Basingthorpe, Lincolnshire (Complete Peerage, by G. E. C. v. 73; Lexington Papers, 1851, pref.). Sutton represented Nottinghamshire in the parliament of 1625, and in the two parliaments called in 1640. He took the side of the king when the civil war began, but at first endeavoured to negotiate a treaty for the neutrality of the county with Colonel Hutchinson and the local parliamentary leaders (Life of Col. Hutchinson, ed. 1885, i. 167, 200, 357–62). He served throughout the war in the garrison of Newark until its surrender in 1646 (, Annals of Newark, pp. 164, 168). On 21 Nov. 1645 the king created Sutton Baron Lexington of Aram (, Oxford Docquets, p. 278). Sutton's loyalty involved him in great losses. His estate was sequestrated, and parliament ordered 5,000l. to be paid out of it to Lord Grey of Wark; till it was paid Grey was to enjoy all the profits of his estate (Calendar of Compounders, p. 1336). Lexington had become one of the securities for a loan raised in Newark for the service of Charles I, which led to further embarrassments (Calendar of Committee for Advance of Money, p. 881; Life of Col. Hutchinson, ii. 139). In 1654 he was a prisoner in the upper bench on an execution for 4,000l., having incurred heavy debts by his composition, and conveyed away all his estate except 300l. per annum (Calendar of Compounders, p. 1337). In 1655 Major-general Edward Whalley [q. v.] and the county committee demanded payment of the decimation tax of ten per cent. of his income. Sutton pleaded inability to