Sir Robert Sawyer, ofHighclere Castle (1633–1692) was theAttorney General for England and Wales (1681–1687) and, briefly,Speaker of the English House of Commons.
Robert was a younger son of Sir Edmund Sawyer, of Heywood Lodge, atWhite Waltham, inBerkshire, who wasAuditor of the Exchequer. He attendedMagdalene College, Cambridge,[1] where he was a contemporary ofSamuel Pepys and later became a benefactor of the library there. Upon leaving university, he became abarrister of theInner Temple and took part in a number of well-known cases. He later became treasurer of Inner Temple.
Sawyer was electedMP forHigh Wycombe in 1673 and wasknighted four years later.[2] He was elected speaker in 1678, but had to resign in under a month because of health problems. Three years later he was made attorney-general. Sir Robert prosecuted members of theRye House Plot and alsoTitus Oates. He returned to private practice, and scored a great triumph as defence counsel in theTrial of the Seven Bishops.
Sawyer settled atHighclere inHampshire where he built the house that preceded the presentHighclere Castle. He was elected to Parliament forCambridge University in 1689 and 1690.
He died at Highclere on 30 July 1692 and was buried in the old church there. He had married Margaret Suckeley and had one daughter, Margaret Sawyer, who marriedThomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke. Their descendants theEarls of Carnarvon eventually inheritedHighclere Castle. He also had a son George, and through George's daughter Catherine was ancestor of the Marquess of Anglesey.
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