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2ND EARL OF SIR ROBERT RICH WARWICK (...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 340 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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2ND See also:

EARL OF See also:SIR See also:ROBERT See also:RICH See also:WARWICK (1587–1658)  , colonial See also:administrator and See also:admiral, was the eldest son of See also:Robert See also:Rich, See also:earl of See also:Warwick (see above) and his wife See also:Penelope Rich (q.v.), and succeeded to the See also:title in 1619 . See also:Early interested in colonial ventures, he joined the See also:Bermudas, See also:Guinea, New See also:England and See also:Virginia companies . His enterprises involved him in disputes with the See also:East See also:India See also:Company (1617) and with the Virginia Company, which in 1624 was suppressed through his See also:action . In 1627 he commanded an unsuccessful privateering expedition against the Spaniards . His Puritan connexions and sympathies, while gradually estranging him from the See also:court, promoted his association with the New England colonies . In 1628 he indirectly procured the patent for the See also:Massachusetts See also:colony, and in 1631 he granted the " See also:Saybrook " patent in See also:Connecticut . Compelled the same See also:year to resign the See also:presidency of the New England Company, he continued to See also:manage the Bermudas and See also:Providence Companies, the latter of which, founded in 1630, administered Old Providence on the See also:Mosquito See also:coast . Mean-while in England Warwick opposed the forced See also:loan of 1626, the See also:payment of See also:ship-See also:money and See also:Laud's See also:church policy, and with his See also:brother the first See also:lord See also:Holland (q.v.) came to be recognized as one of the heads of the Puritans . In See also:March 1642 the See also:Commons, in spite of the See also:king's See also:veto, appointed him admiral of the See also:fleet, and in See also:July he gained the whole See also:navy for the See also:parliament . He raised forces in See also:Norfolk and See also:Essex on the outbreak of the See also:war, and as lord high admiral (1643–1645) he did See also:good service in intercepting the king's See also:ships and relieving threatened ports . In 1643 he was appointed See also:head of a See also:commission for the See also:government of the colonies, which the next year incorporated Providence Plantations, afterwards Rhode See also:Island, and in this capacity he exerted himself to secure religious See also:liberty . Reappointed lord high admiral in May 1648, in the vain See also:hope that his See also:influence with the sailors would win back the nine ships which had revolted to the king, he collected a new fleet and blockaded them at Helvoetsluys .

Dismissed from See also:

office on the abolition of the See also:House of Lords in 1649, he retired from public See also:life, but was intimately associated with See also:Cromwell, whose daughter Frances married his See also:grandson and See also:heir Robert Rich in 1657 . He died on the 19th of See also:April 1658 . The suspicions See also:cast by his enemies on his religious sincerity and See also:political fidelity appear to be baseless .

End of Article: 2ND EARL OF SIR ROBERT RICH WARWICK (1587–1658)
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