High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Bolton (1572 - 16 December 1631) was an English clergyman and academic, noted as a preacher. He was born on Whit Sunday in Blackburn, Lancashire, the sixth son of Adam Bolton of Backhouse. He attended what is now Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, where his father was a founding governor, and was described as the best scholler in the schoole'. At age 18, he was admitted in 1592 to Lincoln College, Oxford, where John Randall was. He was a gifted student, but the next year his father's death caused him financial problems. Richard Brett supported him. He transferred to Brasenose College where there was a Lancashire fellowship available, and proceeded B.A. there on 2 December 1596; and was chosen in 1602 as a fellow of the college, taking his M.A. on 30 July. He was not particularly religious at this period, and was unimpressed with the preaching of William Perkins; Bolton said he thought Perkins was a "a barren empty fellow".