Sir Robert Slingsby, 1st Baronet

Sir Robert Slingsby, 1st Baronet (1611–1661) was an English baronet, writer and Naval commander, and in his last years a much-loved colleague of Samuel Pepys.

He was born at Bifrons near Canterbury, the second son of Sir Guylford Slingsby, Controller of the Navy, and Margaret Walter. Robert was then described as being "infirm and wounded, and not likely to live long".

Restoration At the Restoration he was given his father's old office of Comptroller of the Navy, and was created the first and last of the Slingsby baronets of Newcells. He had already presented the King with his book "The Past and Present State of His Majesty's Navy" which argued for regular payment of sailors' wages, prohibition of private trading in goods by Naval officers and the encouragement of merchant shipping. Samuel Pepys praised the great efforts Slingsby had taken over the book, but added drily that he had too high an opinion of his own work.

Death

Slingsby did not enjoy office for long: on 22 October 1661 Pepys noted that he was sick with ague and fever (an intermittent fever which killed several thousand people in London in 1661–4), and on 24 October he 'continued ill, which makes them all afeared for him'. He died on 26 October to Pepys' grief: 'he being a man that had loved me and had many qualities that made me love him above all the officers and Commissioners in the Navy'. Pepys was distressed that there was no memorial service, which he regarded as a deliberate slight on Slingsby's memory from hostile colleagues like Batten and Sir William Penn, who in Pepys' opinion had regarded Slingsby's integrity as a check on their own greed and ambition. Both Batten and Penn professed grief at Slingsby's death, but Pepys dismissed them as a pair of hypocrites.

Marriage

He married firstly Elizabeth Brooke, only daughter and heiress of Robert Brooke of Newcells, Hertfordshire and Joan Prannell. He married secondly Elizabeth Radclyffe, daughter of Sir Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Baronet of Dilston Castle, Northumberland and Elizabeth Barton; Lady Slingsby was the sister of Francis Radclyffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater and widow of Sir William Fenwick of Meldon. Pepys praised Slingsby's second wife as a "good woman". He had no son and his title died with him; according to Pepys, he had at least one daughter, of whom little seems to be known.