Gabriel Roberts (c. 1665–c.1744) of Ampthill, Bedfordshire, was an official of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

between 1713 and 1734. Roberts was the second son of William Roberts, vintner, of St. Katherine Cree, London, and his wife Martha Dashwood, daughter of Francis Dashwood, merchant and alderman of London. In 1678, he inherited a third part of his father's estate, and in 1683 he joined the East India Company as a writer. He spent six years at Fort St. George, India, where he married Elizabeth Proby, daughter of Charles Proby on 25 August 1687. He was Receiver of sea customs at Fort St. George from 1688 to 1689. He returned to London and became a member of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

in 1691 and was assistant at the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of Eng ...

from 1695 to 1701. In 1696 he was a commissioner taking subscriptions to land bank. He served with his uncles, Sir

Samuel Dashwood Sir Samuel Dashwood Justice of the Peace, JP ( – 12 August 1705) was an English merchant and Tory politician. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1702. Early life The son of Francis Dashwood, a London merchant, by his wife Alice Sleigh, he was a br ...

and

Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet ( – 4 November 1724), of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, London, and West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was a British merchant, landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1713. Ea ...

on the committee of the Old East India Company from 1698 to 1701. In 1701, he was sent back to India and in 1702 took became second of council at Fort St George under

Thomas Pitt Thomas Pitt (5 July 1653 – 28 April 1726) was an English merchant, colonial administrator and politician who served as the president of Fort St. George from 1698 to 1709. Born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, he eventually went to the Indian ...

. He was deputy-governor of Fort St. David, Madras from 1702 to 1703 and from 1704 to 1709. He resigned his place when Pitt left in 1709, but remained in India until 1711. On his return to England, Roberts acquired a property at Ampthill, Bedfordshire from the Bruce family. He was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

, on the Bruce interest at the 1713 general election. He was inactive in Parliament and was classed as a Tory, although he had many dissenting connections. Roberts lost his seat at the 1715 general election but was seated on petition on 13 May 1717. He supported the Government, voting for the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and the

Peerage Bill {{short description, Proposed British law of 1719 The Peerage Bill was a 1719 measure proposed by the British Whig government led by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, which would have largely halted th ...

. He was re-elected in a contest at Marlborough at the 1722 general election. In 1724, he became a director of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially: The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

. He changed seats to

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

at the 1727 general election, when he was returned unopposed. He voted with the Opposition on the arrears of the civil list in 1729, but from then on with the Government. Roberts married as his second wife, Mary Wenman, daughter of Sir Francis Wenman, 1st Baronet of Caswell House, Curbridge, Oxfordshire on 24 February 1690.Oxfordshire, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1538–1812, p. 10. See https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61056/images/PAR043_1_R1_2_010?pId=1890416 He ended his term as a director of the South Sea Company in 1733 and did not stand at the 1734 general election. At his death in 1744, he left an only son Philip by his second wife. This son, Major Philip Roberts, married Anne Coke, daughter of Edward Coke and took the name of Coke in place of his patronymic in 1750. He was the father of Wenman Coke, MP and ancestor of the earls of Leicester.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts Gabriel 1660s births 1730s deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734