March 1626 – 20 October 1685), was a Scottish politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1663, when he inherited his father's title as Earl of Elgin.

[4] In October 1678, Lord Ailesbury was invested as a Privy Counsellor (PC) and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber.

[4] Robert Bruce died in 1685, aged 58, at Houghton House, just north of Ampthill, Bedfordshire, and was buried on 26 October of that year, at Maulden.

By this time, the Bruce family had extensive estates, among them were: Whorlton Castle, West Tanfield, Manfield, and Clerkenwell Priory.

They had seventeen children, nine of whom seem to have survived to adulthood: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1886).