Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth
English politician and alchemist
Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth, FRS (29 May 1631 – 8 March 1683) was an English scientist and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1660 and 1673 when he was created Viscount Yarmouth. He was created Earl of Yarmouth in 1679.
Life
Paston was the son of Sir William Paston, 1st Baronet of Oxnead and his first wife, Lady Katherine Bertie, daughter of Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey. He was educated at Westminster School and was a student of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1646. He travelled abroad in France. In 1660 he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Thetford in the Convention Parliament. He was knighted on 27 May 1660.
In 1661, Paston was elected MP for Castle Rising and sat until 1673, when he had to relinquish his seat on being raised to the peerage as Viscount Yarmouth. He had inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1663. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk on 6 March 1676, retaining the office until his death.
“Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth” enters the record as english politician and alchemist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, Paston and Earl can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robert, Paston and Earl provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15072659. VIAF identifies the subject as 23581458. The Library of Congress control number is n85196339. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1631, 1683, 1660 and 1673.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.