Edward Rich, 6th Earl of Warwick

English peer and politician

Edward Rich, 6th Earl of Warwick (c. 1673 – 31 July 1701) was an English peer and politician who was styled Lord Rich until 1675.^[1]

Origins

He was the son and heir of Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick, 2nd Earl of Holland (1620–1675).

Career

In 1675 he succeeded his father to the titles. In 1699, together with his friend Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, Warwick was tried for the murder of Richard Coote and was found guilty of manslaughter. He escaped punishment by pleading the privilege of peerage. He and Mohun had killed Coote in a duel and it was common for a seventeenth-century jury in such cases to take a lenient view of such matters.^[2]

Marriage and children

In early 1697 he married Charlotte Myddelton, a daughter of Sir Thomas Myddelton, 2nd Baronet, by whom he had one son:

Edward Rich, 7th Earl of Warwick (1698–1721)

Charlotte, who survived her husband, was later married to the celebrated writer Joseph Addison.

Death and burial

He died in 1701 and was succeeded by his son Edward Rich, 7th Earl of Warwick (1698–1721).^[1]

Ancestry

Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick

Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland

Penelope Devereux

Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick

Sir Walter Cope

Isabel Cope

Dorothy Grenville

Edward Rich, 6th Earl of Warwick

Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester

Edward Montagu, Viscount Mandeville

Catherine Spencer

Anne Montagu

Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick

Anne Rich

Frances Hatton

References

^ ^a ^b Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England, v. 3. London: Longmans, Green. p. 600.
^ "The trial of Edward Earl of Warwick and Holland, before the House of Lords, for the murder of Richard Coote, esq". A complete collection of State Trials and proceedings for High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors. 13 (402, column 939). 1812.