Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/62

 Robinson published in 1778 a political pamphlet.

 ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1799–1839), portrait-painter, was a native of Leeds, where he was born in 1799. He was at first apprenticed to a clock-dial enameller, but came to London in 1820, and was entered as a student at the Royal Academy. Robinson was also admitted to work in the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence. About 1823 he returned to Leeds, and obtained a very considerable practice there and in the neighbourhood. He was commissioned to paint some large full-length portraits for the United Service Club in London, including one of the Duke of Wellington. He likewise drew small portraits, the heads being carefully finished, and the remainder lightly touched after the manner of Henry Edridge [q. v.] He died at Leeds, August 1839, in his fortieth year.

 ROBINSON, WILLIAM (1777–1848), topographer and legal writer, born in 1777, practised for many years as a solicitor in Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn, London, but was called to the bar by the Middle Temple on 25 May 1827. He was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 25 March 1819, and received the degree of LL.D. from the university of Aberdeen on 3 May 1822. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 1 June 1848. By his marriage, on 28 Jan. 1803, to Mary, second daughter of William Ridge of Chichester, he had a large family. One of his daughters became the second wife of Sir Frederic Madden [q. v.]

Robinson was interested in the local history of Tottenham, the parish in which he owned property, and its vicinity, and he compiled several excellent volumes on the subject. Their titles are: 1. ‘History and Antiquities of … Tottenham,’ 8vo, Tottenham, 1818; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1840. 2. ‘History and Antiquities of … Edmonton,’ 8vo, London, 1819; another edit. 1839. 3. ‘History and Antiquities of Stoke Newington,’ 8vo, London, 1820; 2nd edit. 1842. 4. ‘History and Antiquities of Enfield,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1823. 5. ‘History and Antiquities of … Hackney,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1842–3. The value of these volumes is diminished by the want of proper indexes.

Robinson's legal writings include: 1. ‘The Magistrates' Pocket Book,’ 12mo, London, 1825; 4th edit. by J. F. Archbold, 1842. 2. ‘Lex Parochialis, or a Compendium of the Laws relating to the Poor,’ 8vo, London, 1827. 3. ‘Formularies, or the Magistrate's Assistant,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1827. 4. ‘Analysis of and Digested Index to the Criminal Statutes,’ 12mo, London, 1829. 5. ‘Introduction of a Justice of the Peace to the Court of Quarter Sessions,’ 12mo, London, 1836. 6. ‘Breviary of the Poor Laws,’ 12mo, London, 1837.

A portrait of Robinson, drawn by F. Simonau, was engraved by J. Mills in 1822.

 ROBINSON-MORRIS, MATTHEW, second in the peerage of Ireland (1713–1800), baptised at York on 12 April 1713, was the eldest son of Matthew Robinson (1694–1778) of Edgely and West Layton, Yorkshire, who inherited property in the neighbourhood of Rokeby from his great-uncle Matthew Robinson [q. v.], rector of Burneston. His mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Drake of Cambridge, inherited estates at Horton, near Hythe in Kent, from her brother, Morris Drake Morris [q. v.], who assumed the surname of Morris. One of Matthew's sisters was Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu [q. v.] Of his six brothers, Thomas [q. v.], the second, and William [q. v.], the fifth, are separately noticed. The third, Morris (d. 1777), a solicitor in chancery in Ireland, was father of Henry, third baron Rokeby [see below]. John, the fourth, was a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The youngest, Charles (1733–1807), was made recorder of Canterbury in 1763, and was M.P. for the city from 1780 to 1790 (, Canterbury, i. 58, ii. 242 n.; Gent. Mag. 1807, i. 386).

Matthew Robinson the younger graduated LL.B. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1734, and became a fellow (, Grad. Cant.) He was elected M.P. for Canterbury on 1 July 1747, and re-elected in 1754. Between these dates he assumed the additional name of Morris on inheriting, through his mother, the Morris property at Monk's Horton, near Hythe, where he subsequently spent much of his time in retirement. He withdrew from parliament on account of his health, but throughout his life took a strong interest in