His wife died at Wyke House on 8 June 1805, aged 71, and was buried at Isleworth on 5 June. Their only child, ‘pretty Mary Robinson,’ was baptised at St. Lawrence Church, Appleby, on 24 March 1759, and married, at Isleworth on 3 Oct. 1781, the Hon. Henry Neville, afterwards second Earl of Abergavenny. She died of consumption at Hotwells, Bristol, on 26 Oct. 1796, and was buried in Isleworth churchyard, where a monument was erected to her memory. Her home was at Wyke House, and all her children were born there.
By his will Robinson left legacies to Captain John Wordsworth and Richard Wordsworth of Staple Inn, London. The enormous wealth which it was currently reported that Robinson had amassed had no existence in fact. His means were comparatively small. There was no fixed salary in the surveyorship, and Robinson was authorised by Pitt to take what he thought fitting. After his death his accounts were called for, and it was some time before they were passed, and the embargo placed by the crown on the transfer of his Isleworth property to Lord Jersey removed. Robinson was a liberal benefactor to Isleworth, Appleby, and Harwich, leaving books to the grammar schools in the last two towns, and building at Appleby ‘two handsome crosses or obelisks one at each end’ of the high street (Lindsey, Harwich, 100).
His portrait (he is described, but not quite accurately, as ‘a little thickset handsome fellow’) was painted by G. F. Joseph, and engraved by W. Bond. From it there was painted by Jacob Thompson of Hackthorpe a picture which is now at Lowther Castle.
[Atkinson's Westmorland Worthies, ii. 151–160; Westmorland Gazette, 26 Dec. 1885; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gen. Mag. 1802 ii. 1172, 1805 ii. 680; Burke's Vicissitudes of Families (1883 edit.), i. 287–300; Aungier's Isleworth, pp. 179, 212; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 412–13; Some account of the Family of Robinson, of the White House, Appleby (1874), passim.]
ROBINSON, JOHN, D.D. (1774–1840), scholar, born of humble parentage at Temple Sowerby, Westmoreland, on 4 Jan. 1774, was educated at the grammar school, Penrith, and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a sizar 1 Jan. 1807. He was master of the grammar school, Ravenstonedale, Westmoreland, from 1795 to 1818, perpetual curate of Ravenstonedale from 25 June 1813 to 1833, and rector from 31 July 1818 of Clifton, and from 12 Aug. 1833 of Cliburn, both in Westmoreland, until his death on 4 Dec. 1840. He was author of several scholastic works, and is described on the title-pages, from 1807 as of Christ's College, Cambridge, of which, however, he was not a graduate, and from 1815 as D.D. His works, all of which were published at London, are as follows: 1. ‘An Easy Grammar of History, Ancient and Modern,’ 1806, 12mo; new edition, enlarged by John Tillotson, with the title ‘A Grammar of History, Ancient and Modern,’ 1855, 12mo. 2. ‘Modern History, for the use of Schools,’ 1807, 8vo. 3. ‘Archæologia Græca,’ 1807, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1827. 4. ‘A Theological, Biblical, Ecclesiastical Dictionary,’ 1815, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1835. 5. ‘Ancient History: exhibiting a Summary View of the Rise, Progress, Revolutions, Decline, and Fall of the States and Nations of Antiquity,’ 1831, 8vo (expanded from the ‘Easy Grammar’). 6. ‘Universal Modern History: exhibiting the Rise, Progress, and Revolutions of various Nations from the Age of Mahomet to the Present Time,’ 1839, 8vo (expanded from the ‘Modern History for the use of Schools’).
Robinson also compiled a ‘Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, illustrated with Twenty Views of Local Scenery and a Travelling Map of the Adjacent Country,’ 1819, 8vo; and contributed the letterpress to an unfinished series of ‘Views of the Lakes in the North of England, from Original Paintings by the most Eminent Artists,’ 1833, 4to. His ‘Ancient History’ forms the basis of Francis Young's ‘Ancient History: a Synopsis of the Rise, Progress, Decline, and Fall of the States and Nations of Antiquity,’ London, 1873, 4 vols. 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1841, i. 320; Foster's Index Eccles.; Whellan's Cumberland and Westmoreland, pp. 766, 790, 791; Biographical Dict. of Living Authors, (1816); Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]
ROBINSON, Sir JOHN BEVERLEY (1791–1863), chief justice of Upper Canada, the second son of Christopher Robinson and his wife Esther, daughter of the Rev. John Sayre of New Brunswick, was born at Berthier in the province of Quebec on 26 July 1791. His father—cousin of Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson [q. v.]—served during the American war of independence as a loyalist in the queen's rangers, and was present as an ensign in Cornwallis's army at the surrender of Yorktown in 1781. He then settled at Toronto, where he practised as a barrister. At an early age John became a pupil of Dr. Strachan (afterwards bishop of Toronto), was further educated at Cornwall, Upper Canada, and finally entered an attorney's office. In 1812, when the war with the United States broke out, Robinson volunteered for the
