Sir Robert Fitzwygram, 2nd Baronet

Sir Robert Fitzwygram, 2nd Baronet (1773-1843)

Sir Robert Fitzwygram, 2nd Baronet FRS (25 September 1773 – 17 December 1843), born Robert Wigram, was a Director of the Bank of England and a Tory politician.

Fitzwygram was the eldest son of Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet, merchant and shipbuilder of Walthamstow.^[1] Wigram was interested in the foundation of the London Institution in 1805.^[2] He followed his father into Parliament in 1806 as Member of Parliament for Fowey. He was a Director of the Bank of England, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was knighted on 7 May 1818. In 1829 he was elected for the Wexford Borough but was unseated on petition in 1839. He was re-elected in 1830, but was again unseated in petition in 1831. He inherited the Wigram Baronetcy on the death of his father in 1830. In 1832 by royal licence, he changed his surname to FitzWygram.^[3]

Selina, Lady Fitzwygram

Wigram married Selina Hayes, youngest daughter of Sir John Macnamara Hayes Bt, in 1812; the couple had children. His son Robert inherited the baronetcy but died without issue. The baronetcy then passed to Fitzwygram's third son, Frederick.

Fitzwygram's numerous brothers included Joseph Cotton Wigram, Bishop of Rochester, Loftus Wigram, George Wigram, and Octavius Wigram, prominent in the City of London as a member of Lloyd's of London and as Governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company.^[4]

References

1. Gentleman's Magazine Obituary of Sir Robert Wigram 1830
2. Philosophical Magazine 1805
3. Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage (online edition, accessed 28 February 2011), p. B1002: "The 1st baronet, Sir Robert Wigram, successively MP for Fowey and co. Wexford, obtained eminence as a merchant; he died 1830, having had twenty-three children. The 2nd baronet, MP for Fowey, in 1832 changed, by royal licence, his surname to FitzWygram".
4. William Courthope, Debrett's complete peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1838), p. 605