Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/20

 The Green Bag VOL. XVIII.

No. i

BOSTON

JANUARY, 1906

CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON, K.C. . By R. VASHON WHEN Sir William Berkeley — an aristocrat to the end of his fingers, a man of velvet and gold lace, a brave sol dier, a devoted husband, a chivalrous friend, and withal as narrow and bigoted and stub born a creature as one could find anywhere — as Fiske describes him — was oppres sively administering the affairs of the colony in the days of that "merrie monarch" King Charles II, and about the year 1666 came Christopher Robinson from Cleasby, in Yorkshire, to Virginia, where the English were then told there was "plenty, health and wealth," and nothing wanting to make people happy. This gracious and courtly cavalier arrived not with empty pockets. He speedily acquired — partly by purchase and partly by grants from the Crown — large estates in the counties of Middlesex and Essex. He bore his share in the affairs of church and state — he became a vestry man and churchwarden, an officer in the militia, a coroner, clerk of the court, a mem ber of the House of Burgesses —- and died Secretary of State for the Colony. Christopher Robinson left in England a brother named John, Bishop of London, a famous diplomat and Lord Privy Seal; and Christophers and Johns have been in the family ever since. The Virginia prop erty passed down through four successive generations of Christophers — the last, dying a bachelor in 1775 — devised it to a sister whose daughter parted with it only some thirty years ago. Christopher — the grandfather of the subject of our sketch, was a youth of eighteen at William and Mary College, Williamsburgh, when the unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her colonies reached a

ROGERS, K.C. climax — when the differences arose be tween mother and daughter about house keeping (as the eloquent Bishop of Mis souri puts it) the shrill call of the trumpet sounded through the quiet dormitories and corridors of the college. Christopher heard, and parting with his friends made his way to the British Army. He obtained a com mission from Sir Henry Clinton in Colonel Simcoe's Legion, sometimes called "the Queen's Rangers. " He served with his corps until the peace, and then emigrated with other U. E. Loyalists to New Brunswick; the only one of his family that clung to the cause of King and Crown. In New Brunswick the half-pay officer married. Soon he moved Westwards — first to Lower Canada, then to what was then known as the Upper Province. He was called to the Bar there and practised at Kingston until 1798. His son John Beverley — born in 1791 — the father of the learned K.C. to whom we pay this tribute of respect — was one of the greatest men that young Canada has yet produced. While still a student he too heard the trumpet's blast calling "to arms! to arms!" and as lieutenant in the York (Toronto) Volunteers he hurried with General Brock to meet General Hull who had crossed from Detroit into Canada. Hull retired as Brock ap proached and shut himself up in his fort at Detroit; in a day or two he surrendered, and young Robinson was sent on August 16, 1812 to take possession of the fort and hoist the British flag. A couple of months after this he fought at Queenston Heights when Brock was killed and was chosen to convey the prisoners across Lake Ontario. When embarking with these (among whom