Robert Long

Who was Robert Long?

Robert Long of Draycot Cerne was an English politician.

Born in Wiltshire, he was the son of Roger le Long.

In 1414 Long was elected Member of Parliament for Old Sarum, and MP for Wiltshire in 1421, 1423–24, 1429–30, 1433, and again in 1442. On 4 November 1428 he was appointed Escheator of Hampshire and Wiltshire.

Long married twice and had four sons, three of whom were elected Members of Parliament, including John, Henry, and Richard. The latter was MP for Old Sarum in 1442, the year that his father and two brothers were all representatives in Parliament for their various Wiltshire constituencies. Subsequent generations of this family each represented Parliament right up until the 20th century, continuing a long tradition.

Robert Long owned the manors of South Wraxall and Draycot, both of which descended in the male line of the Long family for more than 400 years, with Draycot finally bequeathed away by his descendant William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington, who shocked his family by leaving it in his will to his cousin Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, in 1863.