Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/36

 ‘Napoleon and Pope Pius VII,’ after Sir David Wilkie; ‘Sir Walter Scott,’ after Sir Thomas Lawrence; ‘The Mother and Child,’ after Charles Robert Leslie, R.A.; ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (Lady Rachel Russell), ‘The Mantilla’ (Hon. Mrs. Lister, afterwards Lady Theresa Lewis), ‘Twelfth Night’ (Marchioness of Abercorn), and ‘Getting a Shot,’ all after Sir Edwin Landseer; ‘Queen Victoria,’ after John Partridge; ‘The Sisters,’ after F. P. Stephanoff; ‘Bon Jour, Messieurs,’ after Frank Stone, A.R.A.; and, lastly, his fine plate of Anne, countess of Bedford, after the celebrated picture by Vandyck at Petworth, upon which he worked from time to time whenever he felt disposed to use his graver. This chef d'œuvre of refined and delicate execution he sent to the Royal Academy exhibition in 1861, and again in 1864.

Besides the portraits already mentioned, he engraved those of George Bidder, the calculating boy, after Miss Hayter; Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, after George Dawe, R.A.; Napoleon Bonaparte, when first consul, after Isabey; the Duke of Sussex, after Thomas Phillips, R.A.; Baron Bunsen, after George Richmond, R.A.; Lablache, after Thomas Carrick, and many others. He received a first-class gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855.

Robinson died at New Grove, Petworth, Sussex, where he had long resided, on 21 Oct. 1871, aged 75. Somewhat late in life he married a lady of property, which rendered him independent of his art, and enabled him to devote to his plates all the time and labour which he thought necessary to make them masterpieces of engraving. He was a justice of the peace for the county of Sussex and an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of the Fine Arts at St. Petersburg.



ROBINSON, MARTHA WALKER (1822–1888), writer on French history under her maiden name of Freer, daughter of John Booth Freer, M.D., was born at Leicester in 1822. Her first book, ‘Life of Marguerite d'Angoulême, Queen of Navarre, Duchesse d'Alençon, and De Berry, Sister of Francis I,’ appeared in 1854, in two volumes. In 1861 she married the Rev. John Robinson, rector of Widmerpool, near Nottingham, but all her works bear her maiden name. She continued publishing books dealing with French history until 1866. She died on 14 July 1888. Her works are mere compilations, although she claimed to have had access to manuscripts and other unpublished material. Although inferior in style and arrangement to the books of Julia Pardoe [q. v.] on similar subjects, they enjoyed for a time wide popularity. Two of them, ‘Marguerite d'Angoulême’ and ‘Jeanne d'Albret’ (1855), reached second editions. Mrs. Robinson died on 14 July 1888.

Her other works are:
 * 1) ‘Elizabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain and the Court of Philip II,’ 2 vols. 1857.
 * 2) ‘Henry III, King of France and Poland: his Court and Times,’ 3 vols. 1858.
 * 3) ‘History of the Reign of Henry IV, King of France and Navarre,’ part i. 2 vols. 1860; part ii. 2 vols. 1861; part iii. 2 vols. 1863.
 * 4) ‘The Married Life of Anne of Austria and Don Sebastian,’ 2 vols. 1864.
 * 5) ‘The Regency of Anne of Austria,’ 2 vols. 1866.



ROBINSON, MARY (1758–1800), known as ‘Perdita,’ actress, author, and mistress of George, prince of Wales (afterwards George IV), of Irish descent, was born on 27 Nov. 1758 at College Green, Bristol. The original name of her father's family, McDermott, had been changed by one of her ancestors into Darby. Her father, the captain of a Bristol whaler, was born in America. Through her mother, whose name was Seys, she claimed descent from Locke. She showed precocious ability and was fond of elegiac poetry, reciting at an early age verses from Pope and Mason. Her earliest education was received at the school in Bristol kept by the sisters of Hannah More [q. v.] A scheme of establishing a whale fishery on the coast of Labrador and employing Esquimaux labour, which her father originated, and in which he embarked his fortune, led to his temporary settlement in America. His desertion of her mother brought with it grave financial difficulties. Mary was next placed at a school in Chelsea under a Mrs. Lorrington, an able erratic but drunken woman, from whom she claims to have learnt all she ever knew, and by whom she was encouraged in writing verses. She passed thence to a school kept by a Mrs. Leigh in Chelsea, which she was compelled to leave in consequence of her father's neglect. After receiving, at the early age of thirteen, a proposal of marriage from a captain in the royal navy, she temporarily assisted her mother in keeping a girls' school at Chelsea. This establishment was broken up by her father, and she was sent to a ‘finishing school’ at Oxford House, Marylebone, kept by a Mrs. Hervey. Hussey, the