Family and Education

b. c.1655, o. s. of John Robinson of Denston Hall by Elizabeth, da. of Edmund Alleyn of Hatfield Peverel, Essex.  m. 6 Nov. 1677, Amy, da. of Sir Gervase Elwes, 1st Bt.*, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 5da.  suc. fa. 1659; kntd. 1 May 1696.1

Offices Held

Biography

Returned for Sudbury in 1690, probably on the interest of his father-in-law Sir Gervase Elwes, Robinson was classed as a Whig by Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†). On 10 Oct. he was nominated to the drafting committee for a bill to regulate the militia. He was listed as ‘doubtful’ by Robert Harley* in April 1691. On 17 Dec. he was given leave of absence on health grounds. He was also granted five days’ leave of absence on 30 Mar. 1694, and after being returned again without opposition at the 1695 election was marked as ‘doubtful’ in the forecast for the divisions of 31 Jan. 1696 on the proposed council of trade. He signed the Association and was knighted on delivering his county’s subscription at Kensington. Granted leave of absence again on 31 Mar. 1698 for a week, he did not stand at the 1698 election, and was listed in about September as a supporter of the Court party ‘left out’ of the new Parliament. In 1703, with Elwes, he successfully petitioned for a pardon for his eldest son, John, ‘a volunteer on board the late King’s ship Rochester’ who had been convicted of the manslaughter of an innkeeper at Deal.2

Robinson died on 19 Dec. 1704, aged 49.

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

• 1. Copinger, Suff. Manors, v. 228–9; Add. 19147, ff. 43–45; Morant, Essex, ii. 99, 132; Le Neve’s Knights (Harl. Soc. viii), 250; VCH Northants. Fams. 69.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1698, p. 441; 1703–4, pp. 371, 442; Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1702–7, p. 94.