Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth

English politician and author

Date of Birth: 07-Sep-1656

Place of Birth: Dublin, Leinster, Ireland

Date of Death: 22-May-1725

Profession: politician, diplomat

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth PC (Ire) (7 September 1656 – 22 May 1725) was an Irish politician and writer. Molesworth came of an old Northamptonshire family.
He married Hon.
Letitia Coote, daughter of Richard Coote, 1st Baron Coote, and Mary St.
George.
His father Robert (d.
1656) was a Cromwellian who made a fortune in Dublin, largely by provisioning Cromwell's army; Robert Molesworth the younger supported William of Orange and was made William's ambassador to Denmark.
In 1695 he became a prominent member of the Privy Council of Ireland.
The same year he stood for Dublin County in the Irish House of Commons, a seat he held until 1703.
Subsequently, he represented Swords until 1715.
In the following year, he was created Viscount Molesworth, of Swords, in the Peerage of Ireland. Molesworth's An Account of Denmark, as it was in the Year 1692 (published 1694) was somewhat influential in the burgeoning field of political science in the period.
He made a case for comparative political analysis, comparing the political situation of a country to the health of an individual; a disease, he reasoned, can only be diagnosed by comparing it to its instantiation in other people (Thompson, 495).