Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, John (1682-1762)
ROBINSON, JOHN (1682–1762), organist, born in 1682, was in 1700 a child of the chapel royal under Dr. Blow. In 1710 he was appointed organist to St. Lawrence Jewry; in 1713 to St. Magnus, London Bridge (Bumpus). He enjoyed popularity both as a performer on the organ and as professor of the harpsichord, while as a composer there is extant by him the double chant in E flat at the end of vol. i. of Boyce's ‘Cathedral Music.’ On 20 Sept. 1727 Robinson succeeded as organist of Westminster Abbey Dr. William Croft [q. v.], whose assistant he had been for many years. Benjamin Cooke in 1746 became Robinson's assistant. Robinson died on 30 April 1762, aged 80, and was buried on 13 May in the same grave with Croft. A portrait by T. Johnson, engraved by Vertue, shows Robinson seated at a harpsichord.
Robinson married, on 6 Sept. 1716, Ann, daughter of Dr. William Turner (1651–1740) [q. v.] She was a vocalist, and appeared as Mrs. Turner Robinson in 1720 as Echo in Scarlatti's ‘Narcissus.’ On 5 Jan. 1741 she died, and on the 8th was buried in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey. Several daughters died young; one became a singer, often heard in Handel's oratorios. Robinson married a second wife, who survived him, and had by her a son, John Daniel.
[Hawkins's History of Music, p. 827; Bumpus's Organists; Grove's Dict. iii. 139; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. x. 181; Boyce's Cathedral Harmony, i. 2, iii. 18; Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitia; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg. pp. 43, 308, 313, 357, 400; P. C. C. Administration Acts, June 1762.]