Robert Robinson (Baptist)

Robert Robinson was born in Swaffham in Norfolk, on 27 September 1735, to Michael Robinson, a customs officer, and Mary Wilkin, who had married by license at Lakenheath, Suffolk, 28 March 1723. His father died when he was aged five, but his maternal grandfather, Robert Wilkin, a wealthy gentleman of Mildenhall, who had never reconciled himself to his daughter's lowly marriage, disinherited his grandson (leaving an inheritance of only ten shillings and sixpence). Robinson's uncle, a farmer, had sponsored Robinson's attendance at a school at Scarning, near Dereham, Norfolk, under Rev. Joseph Brett. This is summarised by Alexander Gordon, who wrote, "The preaching of Whitefield drew him to the Calvinistic Methodists; he dates his dedication to a religious life from 24 May 1752, his complete conversion from 10 Dec[ember] 1755." Hence, he was drawn initially to Evangelical Methodism on hearing the Calvinist George Whitefield; as late as 1758 he was spending some months at a Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Mildenhall. He was then invited to assist William Cudworth at the Calvinistic Methodist Norwich Tabernacle, but after a matter of weeks seceded to form a new Congregational Chapel in St Paul's parish, Norwich. In January 1759, he moved again, to Stone-Yard Baptist Chapel, Cambridge (St Andrew's Street Baptist Church). Early on, and throughout his life, Robinson pursued a detailed study of the Scriptures and early Christian authors, which soon convinced him of the inefficacy of infant baptism, compared with the baptism of believing adults. This caused him some difficulty after he settled in Cambridge, with his large family of unbaptized children (see following). ==Ministry and later life==

Robinson remained at Stone-Yard Baptist Chapel the rest of his life, first as Lecturer and then, from 1762, as Pastor. In addition to his success in his preaching ministry, Robinson continued in his research and writing, the accumulation of which would come to several volumes once collected, Interest in various works led to invitations by various organisations to provide resources for his visits and research, offers which included privileges at the Cambridge University Library, an offer of facilities at the British Museum so that he could come to London to collect material, etc. Robinson visited The University of Edinburgh in Scotland 1780; he was offered their honorary Doctor of Divinity, which he declined. Late in life, Robinson was anxious to meet Joseph Priestley in Birmingham, and travelled there at the beginning of June 1790. On Sunday 6 June, he preached two Charity Sermons, in the morning at Priestley's New Meeting Chapel, and in the afternoon at the Old Meeting Birmingham, both in aid of the Sunday Schools of the Old and New Meetings. While in Birmingham, Robinson stayed in Showell Green, at the home of the Unitarian benefactor William Russell, Priestley's friend and sponsor at Birmingham. ==Personal life==

Robinson wed Ellen Payne at Norwich in 1759, and the two went on to have 12 children. In their Cambridge years, 1759 and onward, they first lived four miles from Cambridge, at Fulbourn, then in "a cottage at Hauxton" about the same distance from the Chapel, and finally, after more than a decade, to Chesterton (a mile or more from the Chapel, in June 1773). There he also "farmed a piece of land", later buying and rebuilding a house there for the family (1775), It was during his working visit to Priestley in Birmingham, described above, that Robinson died. He was found dead in his bed on the morning of 9 June 1790. ==Views==

Religious While strongly affiliated with the Baptist religious movement of the time, Robinson also wrote for and was read throughout the growing Unitarian movement in England during his life. Political Gordon, writing in 1897 for the British National Dictionary of Biography, writes that Robinson was[i]n politics a strong liberal, and an early advocate for the emancipation of the slave... [and that he] showed his theological liberalism by the part he took, in 1772, in promoting the relaxation of the statutory subscription exacted from tolerated dissenters. ==Published works==

Books Robinson published many works, both major and minor, many of which have been collected. • An examination of Mr. Robinson of Cambridge's Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ (1785) Hymns • Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (1758). ==References==