to London at the age of sixteen, and entered the shop of his relative, J. Brindley, of New Bond Street, known as the publisher of a series of editions of the Latin classics. Robson succeeded Brindley in 1759, and carried on the business for nearly forty years with credit and success. Between 1765 and 1791 he issued many catalogues, some of auction sales, including the libraries of Dr. Mead, Martin Folkes, Edward Spelman, Prebendary Bland, Joseph Smith, consul at Venice, and others. He collected the papers contributed by George Edwards [q. v.], the naturalist, to the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ and published them with the Linnean ‘Index’ and a life of the author in 1776. In 1788 he accompanied James Edwards [q. v.] and Peter Molini to Venice in order to examine the Pinelli library, which Robson and Edwards purchased for about 7,000l., and sold by auction in 1789 and 1790 for 9,356l. After the death of his eldest son Robson gradually withdrew from business. About 1797 he was appointed high bailiff of Westminster. He rebuilt, and was the sole proprietor of, Trinity Chapel in Conduit Street, a chapel of ease to St. Martin's, first erected by Archbishop Tenison.
Robson was an enthusiastic angler, and was nearly the last survivor of the monthly dining club at the Shakspeare tavern, among whose members were Cadell, Dodsley, Longman, Lockyer Davis, Tom Paine, Thomas Evans, and other well-known booksellers. It was under their auspices that Thomas Davies brought out his ‘Dramatic Miscellanies’ and ‘Life of Garrick,’ and among them was first started the proposal which led to Johnson's ‘Lives of the Poets.’ Robson died at his house in Conduit Street on 25 Aug. 1806, aged 73 years. His wife was a Miss Perrot, by whom he had James (1766–1785) and George (who took orders, and became in 1803 a prebendary of St. Asaph), other sons, and five daughters.
[Gent. Mag. 1806, ii. 783, 871; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 634, 661–3, v. 322–6, vi. 434–43; Nichols's Illustrations, iv. 881, vi. 678; Clarke's Repertorium Bibliographicum, 1819, p. 499; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, p. 825.]
ROBSON, STEPHEN (1741–1779), botanist, second son of Thomas Robson, linen manufacturer, of Darlington, Durham, and Mary Hedley, his third wife, was born at Darlington on 24 June 1741. He succeeded to his father's business on the death of the latter in 1771, together with the freehold of the house and shop in Northgate, Darlington, where he also carried on a grocery. Though entirely self-taught, he became a good Latin, Greek, and French scholar, and was especially interested in botany, astronomy, and heraldry. Among his intimate friends was Robert Harrison (1715–1802) [q. v.], of Durham, the orientalist, and he corresponded with William Curtis (1746–1799) [q. v.], the botanist. He printed privately ‘Plantæ rariores agro Dunelmensi indigenæ’ (Dawson Turner and L. W. Dillwyn, The Botanist's Guide, 1805, i. 247), which is now very scarce, and he wrote some poems, all of which he burnt. His chief book was ‘The British Flora … to which are prefixed the Principles of Botany’ (York, 1777, 8vo, with three indexes and five plates illustrating structure). This work, which is in English and evinces a thorough knowledge of botanical literature, coming as it does between the two editions of the ‘Flora Anglica’ of William Hudson (1730?–1793) [q. v.], and arranged upon the Linnæan system, is of great merit and considerable historical interest. The original manuscript, together with the author's ‘Hortus Siccus,’ in three folio volumes, is still preserved by his descendants. He died at Darlington on 16 May 1779 of pulmonary consumption, induced by his sedentary life. Robson married, on 16 May 1771, Ann, daughter of William Awmack, who survived him, dying on 20 July 1792; by her he had one son, Thomas, and two daughters, Hannah and Mary.
Edward Robson (1763–1813), eldest son of Stephen Robson's elder brother Thomas, and his wife Margaret Pease, was born at Darlington on 17 Oct. 1763. He is described as ‘an accomplished botanist and draughtsman’ (Hylton Longstaffe, History of Darlington, p. 369); he was a correspondent of William Withering and of Sir James Edward Smith; contributed various descriptions to the latter's ‘English Botany,’ the lists of plants in Brewster's ‘Stockton’ and Hutchinson's ‘Durham,’ the description and figure of an earth-star (Geaster) in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for February 1792, and the description of Ribes spicatum in the ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society’ (iii. 240). He was elected one of the first associates of that society in 1789. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 21 May 1813, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. He married, on 4 July 1788, Elizabeth Dearman (d. 8 Jan. 1852), by whom he had two sons and a daughter.
[Information furnished by the great-granddaughters of Stephen Robson; Backhouse's Family Memoirs, privately printed; Smith's Annals of Smith of Cautly, privately printed; Green's Cyclostyle Pedigrees, 1891; Longstaffe's History of Darlington; Britten and Boulger's Biographical Index of British Botanists.]
