Baron Roborough

Baron Roborough, of Maristow in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1938 for Sir Henry Lopes, 4th Baronet. He had earlier represented Grantham, Lincolnshire, in Parliament as a Conservative. The Baronetcy, of Maristow in the County of Devon, had been created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1805 for Manasseh Masseh Lopes, a member of a wealthy family of Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin, with special remainder to his nephew Ralph Franco, son of his sister Esther. Manasseh Masseh Lopes converted to Christianity in 1802, and later represented Evesham, in Worcestershire, Barnstaple in Devon, and Westbury in Somerset, in Parliament. However, in 1819 he was twice convicted of bribing the voters in both Barnstaple and Grampound in order to be elected to Parliament, and was sentenced to imprisonment and heavy fines. He was also unseated by the House of Commons, but after his release from prison he nonetheless managed to get elected for Westbury, a pocket borough which he controlled to a great extent.