Roger Comstock

Roger Comstock is a fictional character in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle of novels. He is one of the "Silver Comstocks", a member of the Royal Society, and a key player in the events leading to the Hanoverian Succession.

<spoiler> In The System of the World, Roger Comstock acts as the leader of the Whig faction in opposition to the Tory Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke played a similar, though not identical role, in the real events of 1714.

Comstock's character appears to be heavily modelled on Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, who also:

• had a long association with Isaac Newton
• had an affair with Catherine Barton
• was involved in the recoinage
• was regent after the death of Queen Anne
• was First Lord of the Treasury after the accession of George I
• died shortly after the accession of George I