Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/55

 secretaryship of state, he ‘with a most submissive preamble sent an absolute refusal’ (, Diary, 23 March 1757).

On the accession of George III, Walpole relates that ‘What is Sir Thomas Robinson to have?’ was a question in every mouth. On 7 April 1761 he received a peerage, with the title of Baron Grantham. In 1764 he signed a protest in the House of Lords against the resolution that privilege of parliament does not cover the publication of seditious libels (Ann. Reg. 1764, p. 178). In July 1765 he was named joint postmaster-general, and held the office till December 1766.

Grantham died at Whitehall on 30 Sept. 1770, and was buried at Chiswick on 6 Oct. Walpole declares that at his death he was a ‘miserable object,’ owing to scurvy. He was a fairly able diplomatist, painstaking, and not without persuasive power. Horace Walpole the younger, who always refers to him as ‘Vienna Robinson,’ exaggerated his German proclivities (see, Sir R. Walpole, iii. 114). The best estimate of him is probably that given by Lord Waldegrave, who says that Robinson was a good secretary of state, as far as business capacity went, but was quite ignorant of the ways of the House of Commons. When he played the orator (which was too often) even his friends could hardly keep their countenances. It is significant that no speech by Robinson appears in the ‘Parliamentary History.’ Carlyle found his despatches rather heavy, ‘but full of inextinguishable zeal withal.’ His descriptions of the imperial ministers, and especially his appreciation of Prince Eugène, show insight into character.

Robinson married, on 13 July 1737, Frances, third daughter by his first wife of Thomas Worsley, esq. of Hovingham, Yorkshire. She died in 1750, leaving issue two sons and six daughters, and was buried at Chiswick on 6 Nov. of that year. The elder son, Thomas, second baron Grantham, is separately noticed.

[The Robinson Papers, or Grantham MSS. (Add. MSS. 23780–877, and 22529) were largely utilised by Coxe in the various works quoted above, and by Carlyle in his History of Frederick the Great. See also Coxe's Life of Horatio, Lord Walpole, i. 198, 199, 208–10, 276 et seq. 310, 311, ii. 254; Walpole's Letters, ii. 140, 218, 232, 284, 376, 408, 484, iii. 78, 80, 362, iv. 384, v. 260, and Memoirs of George II, i. 388, ii. 44–5, 93–4; Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, pp. 19, 31–2, 46, 52, 81, 108; Bedford Corresp. i. 450–1, 476–9, 480–1, 502; Bubb Dodington's Diary, passim; Ret. Memb. Parl.; Thackeray's Life of Chatham, i. 208–9, 225; Gent. Mag. 1770, p. 487; Lord Stanhope's Hist. of England, 1846, chap. xxxii.; Collins's Peerage, 5th edit. vol. viii.; G. E. C.'s Peerage; Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees, vol. i.; admission book of Trinity College, Cambridge; authorities cited.] 

ROBINSON, THOMAS (1700?–1777), ‘long Sir Thomas,’ governor of Barbados and amateur architect, born about 1700, was eldest son and heir of William Robinson (bapt. Rokeby, Yorkshire, 23 Sept. 1675, d. 24 Feb. 1720), who married, in 1699, Anne, daughter and heiress of Robert Walters of Cundall in Yorkshire; she died on 26 July 1730, aged 53, and was buried in the centre of the south aisle of Merton church, Surrey, where a marble monument was placed to her memory. Sir Thomas, her son, also erected in the old Roman highway, near Rokeby, an obelisk in her honour. Another son, Richard Robinson, first baron Rokeby [q. v.], was primate of Ireland.

After finishing his education, Thomas travelled over a great part of Europe, giving special attention to the ancient architecture of Greece and Italy and the school of Palladio. He thus cultivated a taste which dominated the rest of his life. On returning to England he purchased a commission in the army, but soon resigned it in favour of his brother Septimus, and at the general election in 1727 was returned to parliament, through the influence of the family of Howard, for the borough of Morpeth in Northumberland. On 25 Oct. 1728 he married, at Belfrey's, York, Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Charles Howard, third earl of Carlisle, and widow of Nicholas, lord Lechmere. While in parliament he made several long speeches, including one very fine speech which, according to Horace Walpole, he was supposed to have found among the papers of his wife's first husband. About this time he designed for his wife's brother the west wing of Castle Howard, which, though pronounced to be not devoid of merit, is out of harmony with the other parts. Later in life he and Welbore Ellis persuaded Sir William Stanhope to ‘improve’ Pope's garden, and in the process the place was spoilt.

Robinson was created a baronet on 10 March 1730–1, with remainder to his brothers and to Matthew Robinson of Edgley in Yorkshire, and from November 1735 to February 1742 he was a commissioner of excise. His expenditure was very extravagant both in London and on his own estate. He rebuilt the mansion at Rokeby, enclosed the park with a stone wall (1725–30), and planted many forest trees (1730). These acts were recorded in 1737, in two Latin inscriptions on two marble tables, fixed in the two stone