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The Robinson Family
Genealogical and Historical

Association

The Robinsons and Their Kin Folk

Second Series, August, 1904

OfficerSt Constitution and By-Laivs

Address to Our Primal Ancestor

Secretary's Report

Gloucester f Mass., Illustrated

Historical Sketches, Illustrated

c/ldditional Members of c4ssociation

PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION

NEW YORK
J904

Gift

Pttblishrt'

22 D '04

PRINTED BY

FRANK C.

AFFERTON

113

Liberty Street

New

York

HON. DAVID I. ROBINSON, GLOUCESTER, MASS.

CONTENTS.

OFI-lrERS, -----_.

CoNSnTlTIOX, ---.-.

Hy-Laws, ---.-..

C)l K Primal Ancestor, - - . . .

SeCRKTARY's ReI'OKI', -----.

Views in Gloucester, . . . _ _

Letters from Henry S. Ru(;<;i.es, Esq.,

Coat Armor in the American Colonies,

Descendants oe Georce and Mary (Bushnell) Roiunson

To THE Robinson Association, - . - .

John Rokinson, ......

John W. Roiunson, . . . . .

Samuel Roblnson, -..-..
Members' Names, ------

PAGE

5
6

9-13
14-20
21-22

23-31
32-41
42-49

50-5S
59-68
69-76
77-80

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Hon. David I. Robinson,

Our Primal Ancestor,

City of Gloucester, 1892,

HioH School Buildinc, Gloucester,

City Hall,

Old Ellery House,

Willow Road,

Handllnc. Halibut,

Old "Mother Ann,"

Rafe's Chasm,

" Whale's Jaw,"

Old Style Pinkey

New Model of "Schooner,"

Robinson Home, Jamaica, Vt.

Old Robinson Appletree, Jamaica, Vt.

Ex-Lieut. Governor O. W. Robinson,

Capt. O. D. Robinson,

FRONTISPIECE

- 8

- 16
16

- 17
17

- iS
19

- 19
19

- 20
20

- 36
38

- 45
46

Sami'ei, Stili.man Rom.vsoN,

Df.el> ok John Roisinson, - - -

Cai'T. Ebenezer Robinson's House,

Cai't. Samiei, Robinson, . . _

Jmhn Rohinson's Watch, . _ .

Jdhn W. Roi'.inson, - . . .

Mrs. John W. (Ann Butler) Rokinson, -

Stone House of John W. Robinson, -

Residence of William H. Conyncham,

Homestead of Hon. Henry Bradley Wricht,

View of River Street, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,

PAGE

- 48
51

- 53
54

- 58
60

- 61
62

- 63
64

- 65

-m^:-.

orncERS OF the association.

President,
HON. DAVID I. ROBINSON, Gloucester, Mass.

Vice Presidents,

Judge Gifford S. Robinson, Sioux Cit}-, la.

Increase Robinson, Waterville, Me.

*James H. Dean, Esq., Taunton, Ma.ss.

George O. Robinson, Detroit, Mich.

Prof. William H. Brewer, New Haven, Conn.

Mr. Roswell R. Robinson, Maiden, Mass.

-''Capt. Charles T. Robinson, Taunton, Mass.

Rev. William A. Robinson, Middletown, N. Y.

Mr. John H. Robinson, . Boston, Mass.
Mr. Charles F. Robinson, North Raynham, Mass.

Mr. George W. Robinson, Elburn, 111.

Henry P. Robinson, Guilford, Conn.

Secretary,
Adelaide A. Robinson, North Raynham, Mass.

Treasurer,
N. Bradford Dean, Taunton, Mass.

Historiographer,
Charles E. Robinson, 123 Richmond St., Plainfield, N. J.

Executive Committee,

Fred W. Robinson, Boston, Mass.

Charles K. Robinson, New York.

George R. Wright, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

Orlando G. Robinson, Raynham, Mass.

Bethuel Penniman, New Bedford, Mass.
*Dead.

CONSTITUTION.

I. The name of this Association shall be "The Robinson
Family Genealogical and Historical Association."

'»'

2. The purpose for which it is constituted is the collection,
compilation and publication of such data and information as
maj' be obtained concerning the Robinson Families.

3. Any person connected with the descendants of

William' Robinson of Dorchester,

George' of Rehoboth,

William' of Watertown,

Isaac^ of Barnstable, son of Rev. John,

Abraham' of Gloucester,

William' of Watertown,

John' of Exeter, N. H.,

Stephen' of Dover, N. H.,

Thomas' of Scituate,

James' of Dorchester,

William of Salem,

Christopher of Virginia,

Samuel of New England,

Gain of Ph-mouth,

or any other Robinson ancestor, by descent or marriage, may
become a member of the A.ssociation.

There shall be a membership fee of one dollar, and an annual
due of twenty-five cents, or ten dollars for life membership,
subject to no annual dues.

4. The officers of the A.ssociation shall be a President, twelve
Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, Historiographer, and
an Executive Committee of five.

BY-LAWS.

1. The President shall preside at all business meetings of
the Association, and in his absence a Vice-President shall per-
form the duties of President.

2. The Secretary shall keep the records and minutes of the
meetings.

3. The Treasurer shall receive all monies of the Association.
He shall have the custody of all the funds belonging to the
Association. He shall disburse the same under the direction of
the Executive Committee.

4. The Executive Committee shall have the control of the
affairs of the Association and its property, and shall receive for
safe custody all documents entrusted to them. It shall be their
duty to make arrangements to obtain all data and information
concerning the descendants of the aforesaid Robinson ancestors
for the purpose of compilation and publication of the same. The
officers of the Association shall be ex-oificio members of the
Executive Committee.

5. The members of the Executive Committee present at any
regular notified meeting shall form a quorum. They may fill
any vacancies that may occur in the board of officers until
others are regularly appointed.

ADDRESS TO OUR PRIMAL ANCESTOR.

By DoANE RuiJiNSON, Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Illustrations by " Bart," the leading Western cartoonist.

No doubt it swells your dotard pride,
To jauk about and dodge and hide,

From all your kin ;
But mind you, we are on your trail ;
A tireless band and everyone
A true and dauntless Robinson.
Enjoy your sport ! We give you hail,
And warn you that we shall not fail,

To fetch you in.

We've combed and sifted o'er and o'er,
Columbia, from sea to shore.

To catch the clue.
We've climbed the heights of Bunker Hill;
We've tunnelled under Plymouth Rock,
To trace our lost ancestral stock, —
Jeer from your covert if you will.
Or cross the ocean. Dauntless still.

We'll follow you.

The hoary crags of Scotia scale;

Her boistrous frifths and torrents sail;

Ay, rant and fret !
Yea, crouch within a Leyden jar, —
The pack is after you full cry.
The trail is warm, the quarry nigh,
And though you seek the regions far.
Or mount the blazing morning star,

We'll bag you yet.

SECRETAIRES REPORT.

The second biennial meeting of the Robinson Family Gene-
alogical and Historical Association, was held in Gloucester,
Mass., on the 26th of August, 1902.

Over one hundred members of the different families were
present, representing Missouri, South Dakota, Illinois, Michi-
gan, New York, and all tlie New England States, with the
exception of Vermont.

Those who came from a distance arrived at noon from
Boston by steamer and train, and were met by a delegation of
the family at the station and pier, and were escorted to two
special trolley cars in waiting to convey the members of the
Association for a ride of fifteen miles around famous Cape Ann,
thus encircling the picturesque city of Gloucester, on one of
the most perfect of summer days, greatly to the enjoyment and
satisfaction of all. The ride was made the more enjoyable by
the untiring attention of the Hon. David I. Robinson and his
son, Will Austin Robinson, who called attention to the many
points of interest as we passed. During the trip a substantial
lunch of sandwiches and cake was served as an appetizer to
a more bountiful repast to be served at the well known
" Surf side Hotel," the headquarters of the Association, on the
termination of the trip, which was accomplished shortly after
two o'clock.

At three o'clock we were summoned by mine host Sawyer,
to a banquet served in his spacious dining hall in his well
known style, which left no opportunity for complaint either in
quality or quantity.

Shortly after four o'clock the meeting was called to order
in the parlor of the hotel by Mr. Charles E. Robinson of New
York.

A letter from Daniel W. Robinson, Esq., of Burlington,
Vt., our worthy president, was read, expressing his great regret

10 SECRETARY S REPORT.

at his inability to be present at the meeting, and with the feel-
ing that the best interest of the Association would be advanced
by the biennial election of the presiding officer, tendered his
resignation as president of the Association, which was accepted,
and Hon. David I. Robinson of Gloucester, was nominated and
unanimously elected to fill the vacanc^^

Mr. Robinson was escorted to the chair. On assuming the
office he spoke briefly thanking the executive committee for
the selection of his native city as the place of their meeting,
and for the large attendance of the members. In the course of
his remarks he alluded to Manchester-by-the-Sea as being his
natal city, but Gloucester as the birth and burial place of all
of his ancestors, the first of whom was Abraham Robinson, one
of the earliest of the settlers on this side of Massachusetts
Bay, and the ancestor of all the Robinsons on tlie Cape.

The report of the last meeting as published in "The Rob-
insons and Their Kin Folk" was accepted.

Since our last meeting, three deaths have been reported,
one of them being that of our lamented Vice-President Franklin
Robinson, Esq., of Portland, Me. The others, Mrs. Mary J.
Norton, Wood's Hole, Ma?;s., and Miss x\manda Dows, Cazen-
ovia, N. Y.

The following resolutions of sympathy were passed, and
the secretary authorized to send a copy of the same to the fam-
ily of the deceased: —

Resolved, that in the death of our highly respected vice-
president, Franklin Robinson, Esq., whose interest in the suc-
cess of our Association was made so apparent, we have sustained
a serious loss, and it is with feelings of sorrow and sympathy
for the bereaved widow and children, that we, as a mark of
respect to his memory, move that a copy of these minutes be
transmitted to Mrs. Robinson.

Resolved, that as it becomes our sad duty to record the
dcatli of our esteemed members, Mrs. Mary J. Norton and Miss
Amanda Dows, we feel the serious loss that our Association
sustains, and desire to express our appreciation of the interest
shotfv'n and support given by them in our work, and our sym-

SECRETARY S REPORT. I I

pathy for the families in the loss they have sustained, by trans-
mitting to them a copy of this record.

Letters of regret over their inability to be present at the
meeting, were read from George R. Wright, Esq., of Wilkes
Barre, Pa., Mr. C. W. Manwaring, of Hartford, Conn., and Mr-
George R. Penniman, of Boston, Mass.

The subject of incorporating the Association under the
laws of Massachusetts was discussed and left to the executive
committee and Charles E. Robinson to report at the next
meeting.

'&•

Mr. George O. Robinson of Detroit, Mich., and Mr. Henry
P. Robinson of Guilford, Conn., were elected vxe-presidents to
fill the vacanies on the board; also George R. Wright, Esq., of
Wilkes Barre, Pa., and Charles K. Robinson, Esq., of Brooklyn,
N. Y., were elected to fill vacancies on the executive committee.

Mr. George O. Robinson of Detroit, made the suggestion
that all members of the Association should write out and furn-
ish to the Historiographer, the ancestral history of their branch
of the Robinson family as far as they have the record, also that
they notify him of any subsequent changes that may occur
therein.

A vote was passed not to dispose by sale of any of the
publications of the Society, but that copies of the same might
be donated to such libraries and associations as may be thought
best in the judgment of the secretary.

A brief notice of the first publication of the Society, " The
Robinsons and Their Kin Folk," in the July is;ue of the
Netv England Historical and Genealogical Register for 1902, was
read by Charles E. Robinson of New York, in which the Society
was criticised for attributing to themselves a coat of arms
without proof of right, a committee of the New England His-
torical and Genealogical Society thus claiming the authority
to pass upon the right of any family in America to adopt a
coat of arms not sanctioned by them.

Tins astounding criticism lead Henry S. Ruggles, Esq., of
Wakefield, Mass., to write an able article entitled, " Coat Armor
in the American Colonies," which was then read by Mr. Rob-

12 SECRETARY S REPORT.

inson, at the close of which a vote of thanks was extended to
Mr. Ruggles for his exhaustive presentation of the subject.

A brief history of the descendants of George Robinson^
one of the early settlers of Boston, Mass., was read by Dr.
H. E. Robinson of Maryville, Mo., to whom a vote of thanks
was passed for his very able paper.

Owing to the lateness of the hour, papers that were pre-
pared to be read at the convention by George R. Wright, Esq ,
Wilkes Barre, Pa., Mrs. Martha A. Robinson, Portland, Me.,
Mrs. Ida R. Bronson Nashville, Tenn., and the Rev. Joseph
H. Robinson, Pelham Manor, N. Y., were omitted and ordered
to be printed in the next edition of " The Robinsons and Their
Kin Folk."

It was voted to hold the next meeting of the Association
in the summer of 1904, at Plymouth, Mass., the date to be de-
termined by the executive committee, and notices thereof to
be sent to each member of the Association by the secretary.

A vote of thanks were extended to Mr. Fred W. Robinson
and his able assistant, Mr. John H. Robinson of Boston, and
the Hon. David I. Robinson and his son, Mr. Will Austin
Robinson of Gloucester, for their untiring zeal in the ample
arrangements made for the accommodation and comfort of the
members of the Association in their present meeting.

A vote of thanks were extended to Daniel W. Robinson,
Esq., of Burlington, Vt., George R. Wright, Esq., of Wilkes
Barre, Pa., and Mr. Charles E. Robinson of Yonkers, N. Y.
(now Plainfield, N. J.) for their generous donations to the
Society, also to R. R. Robinson, Esq., of Maiden, Mass., for his
gift of a set of record books to the Association.

The registration of the visitors was in charge of Miss
Emma J. C. Robinson of Gloucester, who faithfully discharged
her duty.

Thanks of the Association were extended to Mr. Sawyer,
proprietor of the Surf side Hotel, for his hospitality.

A vote of thanks was extended to Miss Adelaide A. Robin-
son of North Raynham, Mass., for her devotion to the Associa-
tion for services rendered as secretary.

SECRETARY S REPORT. I 3

The following named, guests of the convention, joined the
Association: — Mrs. R. A. Cutts, Lynn, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs.
Edson C. Eastman, of Concord, N. H.; Mrs. C. Downer Austin,
New York City; Mrs. A. B. Fuller, Cambridge, Mass.; Mrs.
Mary E. R. Porter, CHfton-Dale, Mass.; Miss Anna B. Robin-
son, Dorchester, Mass.; Mr. Charles F. Robinson, Somerville,
Mass.; Mr. Herbert J. Robinson, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mr. Henry
P. Robinson, Guilford, Conn.; Mr. Noah O. Robinson, Somer-
ville, Mass.; Mr. Nathan W. Robinson, Savin Hill, Mass., and
Mrs. E. R. Shippee, Pawtucket, R. I.

A full list of all members who have joined the Association
since the pul)lication of the list in the edition of " The Robin-
sons and Their Kin Folk " in 1902, will be found in their proper
order in this edition of the publication of the Society, includ-
ing the change in address of all members so far as reported to
date.

The meeting adjoined sine die at 6 o'clock. Many of the
party left in special car on the 6.30 P. M. train for Boston.

Miss Adelaide A. Robinson, Secretary.
North Raynhau, Mass., June ist, 1904.

ti -^i -^

VIEWS IN GLOUCESTER, MASS.

For these views in the city of Gloucester we are indebted
to the kindness of James R. Pringle, Esq., author of the
"History of the Town and City of Gloucester, Mass.," who
has generously loaned the cuts for this edition of " The Robin-
sons and Their Kin Folk."

ti ^ ^

VIFAVS IN GLOUCESTER.

VIEWS IN GLOUCESTER.

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VIEWS IN GLOUCESTER.

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LETTER. FROM HENRY S. RUGGLES, Esq.

The following letter was read by the historian at the
meeting, as introductory to Mr. Ruggles' paper.

W.Tkcfield, Mass., July gth, igo2.
Cuari.es E. RoiiiNSON, Esq., Yonkers, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Robinson: — I was kindly asked by you to write and read a
paper at the meeting of the Robinson Association, to be held on the 26th of
August, at Gloucester, Mass. I cannot attend that meeting, but having reati
in the July iVezt) England Nistorica/ G en ea logical /register, the attack upon
your heraldry article in the first number of the " Robinsons and Their Kin
Folk," I thought it worth while in view of the denial by the official organ of
that society of the right of the Robinsons to bear arms, to prepare the enclosed
paper on American Colonial Heraldry, which perhaps, you would be willing
to read or have read by the secretary for me. It sets forth the plain facts as
to heraldry in this country in early times and the present. Very few people
understand the truth of this matter, and are imposed upon by self appointed
heralds, in Somerset St., Boston.

The New England Historical and Genealogical Society have repeatedly
attacked the validity of arms shown in family histories presented to their
library, while omitting all mention of arms printed in other family genealogies
that come to them in the same way, and even commending the execution of
armorial plates in some others, and the last named are not by any means
the families they have included in the Appleton roll. That Society or its
committee, are clothed with no authority to decide such questions. Their
opinions are worth just as much as yours or mine — if they are their honest
opinions; and until the government of our country delegates to some official
the power to register and confirm arms, there will never be anyone in this
world with authority to give any binding opinions regarding an_\- American
Arms — and this Republic is never likely to take that step.

I think the memljers of our family at large woulil like some information
on the points I have covered. It is not written in a way to indicate any ref-
erence to the Robinson family, or to the fling made at the family by the
Society. It is only a general defence of American arms, and an exposure of
the false stand taken by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society
in regard to all American heraldry.

You may not know the committee on heraldry (by some derisively called
"the committee for the suppression of heraldry ") of the N. E. H. G. S. go
so far as to place written inserts in some genealogies in their library, setting
forth their disappro\al or repudiation of arms therein, thus depreciating the
authority of the book in the eyes of readers not well versed in these matters.
At the same time they utterly refuse to make or permit to be made a change
of name or date tliat is discovered to be erroneous, and can be so ]iro\en by

22 LETTER FROM HENRY S. RUGGLES, ESQ.

evidence. Consistency does not appear as one of tlieir distinctive qualities.
I say these tilings as to tlieir methods, on the observation of people who
frequent their library.

It occurs to nie that it would be proper not to supply that society with
any of the printed matter hereafter issued relating; to the family. They lack
many family histories, found in all the other libraries, for like reasons. 1
note in the current number of their niajfazine, a long list of the genealogies
they lack, many of which may be found in the Boston Public Library. Evi-
dently people are finding them out. It is a great pity the society has taken
this course for it once did good work, and in proper hands might do a great
work now.

Sincerely yours,

H. S. Rlx;gi.es.

? 5 ^

COAT ARMOR. IN THE AMERICAN

COLONIES.

By Henry Stoddard Ruggles, Esq.

WITH all the works on the subject of heraldry upon
the shelves of our local libraries, there is very little
to be found that will throw any hght upon the
status of American colonial arms, and most persons
are densely ignorant of the whole matter. Certain
nearby societies of a historical or antiquarian
nature are supposed by many to be quahfied to
speak authoritatively on the question and are
sought by the inc|uirer only to have cpoted to him
by some officer certain rules governing the heralds' College
of England, and is given the impression that all colonial arms
must be grants from this source.

Nothing can be farther from the facts than this theory,
for the English college never for a single moment since its founda-
tion had any authority or jurisdiction outside of the boundaries
of England and Wales. The regulations it has laid down have
nothing more to do with this country than have those of the
heraldic offices of Scotland, Ireland, Sweden or Austria, and the
laws governing the descent and proof of arms in the different
countries are not alike by any means. Even in Scotland and
Ireland the officers of arms have made manv important regula-
tions markedly unlike those of England, being wholly indepen-
dent of the English college and of each other.

The New England Historic Geneological Society has made
a peculiar record in the matter of colonial heraldry. Previous
to 1864 it apparently accepted and printed in its quarterly
any American arms for which a claim was made by any writer.
The pages of the magazine in the early years contain many
family arms for which no evidence is offered, and probably for
which none was ever asked. In 1864 the society took a new and
radical departure in the following words:

24 COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

"The committee on heraldry begs leave to report after
"several meetings the plan adopted for its future operations.
"It has seemed best to fix a period arbitrarily to the probable
"authenticity of coats of arms used in New England and we
"have settled upon the year 1760 as the latest period when the
"use of arms unsupported by other evidence can be considered
"proof."

This was a very extraordinary move to have made and
certainly no one is bound by their "arbitrary" acts. This plan
however, seemed to govern the society until 1898 when the fol-
lowing was substituted as the rule of action:

"As there is no person and no institution in the United
"States with authority to regulate the use of the coat of arms
"your committee discourages their display in any way or form.
"Prior to the revolution as subjects of a government recognizing
"heraldry certain of the inhabitants were entitled to bear coats
"of arms, but only such as were grantees of arms or who could
"prove descent in the male line from an ancestor to whom arms
"were granted or confirmed by the heralds. Females did not
"regularly bear arms, but the daughter of an arms bearing
"father could use the paternal coat in a lozenge. When she
"married such arms did not descend to her children (except by
"special authority) unless she was an heiress marrving an
"armiger and then only as quarterings of her husband's arms.
"The mere fact that an individual possessed a painting of a coat
"of arms, used it upon plate or as a bookplate or seal or had it
"put upon his gravestone is not proof that he had a right to it.
"Proof of right must either be found in the heralds' records or be
"established by authentic pedigree direct from an armiger. A
"coat of arms did not belong with a family name but only to
"the particular family bearing the name to whose progenitor it
"had been granted or confirmed, and it was as purely individual a
"piece of property as a homestead. Hence it was as ridiculous
"to assume arms without being able to prove the right as it
"would now be to make use of a representation of the Washington
"mansion at Mount Vernon and claim it as having been the
"original property of one's family, unless bearing the name
"of Washington and being of the line of those who owned it."

This is in direct opposition to the stand of 1864, and there-
fore in adopting the later report the society admitted that for
fifty years it had been in error in the matter of heraldry. One

COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 25

naturally asks what assurances there are that it is not equally
at fault now.

In reciting the new regulations we are given to understand
that they were applicable and of force here in these colonies.
Such is not the fact. No restrictions or laws of any kind relating
to arms bearing here ever existed. These rules more nearly
resemble the position of the English heralds of today than any
others, but they do not truthfully state the present requirements
of the English college, and they are very unlike the rules in force
in England at the time of the colonization of America. The
settlements here were made at the time of the visitations in
England, and the later visitations there, were of a subsequent
period.

That we may understand how the bearing of arms was
regarded by the heralds of the visitations, the words of one of the
best known, Sir William Dugdale, Norry king of arms in 1668,
are quoted:

"Therefore, it will be requisite that he do look over his
own evidences for some seals of arms, for perhaps it appears in
them, and if so and that they have used it from the beginning
of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or about that time, I shall allow
thereof, for our directions are limiting us so to do, and not for
a shorter prescription of usage."

This makes it sufficiently clear that use in a family for
about one hundred years gave good title to arms. This was in
accord with the practice in the visitations in some other coun-
tries, and such proof is admitted by the heralds in some parts of
Europe even now. Prescription of usage covering three genera-
tions will establish one's right to arms today with the Ulster
king, so liberal are the regulations of the Irish office.

Although until 1898 the New England Historic Genealogical
Society did not adopt its present plan, there was a disposition by
those in control to disparage all American claims some time
before the society formally took this new stand. In 1891, W.
S. Appleton printed in the magazine the names of twenty-nine
families as the sum total of New England's founders entitled by
evidence satisfactory to him, to bear arms; and this Ust has been
used as a final dismissal in many instances of any inquiry there
as to arms.

The exact title of this extraordinary roll, as it appears in
the pamphlet reprint is, — ''Positive Pedigrees and Authorized

26 COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

Arms of Nezv England," and the second family in the list is that of
its author. Its preface contains this precious bit of information :

" It is a fact that the early settlers of New England were not
"all of the same social rank at home. Some belonged to the
"gentry and were entitled by birth to use shields with the arms
"of their families, while many more were simple yeomen with
"no claim to such distinction."

This idea that no one of the ^^eoman class can have any
valid claim to arms is very industriously nurtured by the
heraldry people of the New England society, and the admission
by them of one's right to arms is to be taken also as establishing
his standing as a gentlemen. While the modern English herald
fosters the same theory, it is nevertheless utterly untrue.

Theoretically, the younger son of a gentleman is always a
gentleman. In practice the younger sons of younger sons are
generally of the yoemanry or lower yet. The younger son of a
peer is but a gentlemen, and in a few generations it is not unusual
to find the descendants of noblemen among the actual peasantry.
A coat of arms once acquired descends forever to all heirs male
of the body of its original bearer, and however low by poverty
one of these may have fallen, his right to the arms of his family
still holds. It is a commendable spirit that leads the Spanish
peasant rudely to emblazon upon the stones of the hut he in-
habits, his armorial bearings. In England, on the contrary,
poverty and the conditions that go with it, cause many to
relinquish any claim to their armorial rights, and in time all
trace may be lost.

The use of the term "authorized arms" has this exact
meaning: the herald will certify to a man's right only if he has
upon record in the office of arms his grant or his lineage from a
grantee. Arms having such certificate are "authorized." The
right to arms exists without the record, by virtue of inheritance.
The herald cannot deny a man's right to arms — he can only
refuse to certify if fees have not been paid to record the requisite
pedigree. The majority of arms borne by the recognized gentry
of England today, have not the sanction of the herald, and the
absence of a record in the college is evidence of nothing in the
world but the refusal of one's ancestors to pay fees. The New
England people would have us believe that a man is not permitted
to display arms in England unless they are sanctioned by the
heralds, but the truth on the contrary is, that the heralds have

COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 2']

not the power to give a man this right. A yearly tax payment
collected independently of the college and its officers, is the only
means and the only requirement by which one may there have
the privilege of placing arms upon his carriage door.

The enactment of the law making arms bearing dependent

upon this tax alone, accomplished the purpose of protecting

claimants whose right through lapse of time was impossible of

establishment by unbroken pedigree. It was also a rebuke to

the avarice of the heralds, who sought to deprive such of their

arms and to coerce people in various other ways to pay tribute.

Remembering the significance of the term, "authorized

arms," as employed in heraldry, let us see what Mr. Appleton's

list of "authorized arms of New England" claims to be. He

names twenty-nine emigrants to these shores as the authorized

arms bearers. Unless the names of these individual men are

entered in the records of the college of arms they were not

authorized. " ' Let us take his own family as a test case. He says ;

"Appleton, Samuel of Ipswich, Mass. From Little Walding-

' field, Suffolk. In visitation of Suffolk. Arms. Argent a fess

'sable between three apples gules leaved and stalked vert.

'Evidence: Will of Robert Ryece of Preston, Suffolk, 1637,

'who married Mary Appleton of Little Waldingfield : 'My

'loving brother-in-law, Samuel Appleton, now dwelling at

'Ipswich in New England.' See also Lichford's Note Book as

'published by American Antiquarian Society."

Nothing here making Samuel Appleton of New England an
"authorized" arms bearer. His name is not in the visitation
records nor upon any pedigree in the heralds' college. Mr.
Appleton's family have a claim to arms no whit better than a
thousand other New England families. In some respects not as
good, for unfortunately for the claim here set up we find no use of
these arms, he has described, by the emigrant, his sons or his
grandsons, but we do find an entirely different coat claimed by
Colonel Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, grandson of the emigrant,
and this shield may be seen upon his tombstone in that town.

The value of this roll of arms may be judged by this sample.
The whole thing bears the appearance of an attempt to place his
own family in a social plane above the majority of the founders
of New England, and the preface emphasizes this effort as a
piece of oiTensive impertinence.

The false standards set up in this pretended roll of authorized

28 COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

arms in 1891 appear to have dominated the course of the society
later in making the regulations adopted in 1898. How utterly
untenable these restrictions are, can be understood when we
realize that the assumption of a coat of arms was once a right
enjoyed by everyone — that until king or constituted authority
supervenes that right continues, and that no such power has
ever attempted any regulation here.

The bearing of arms has always been a right of every colonist
in America and of every American citizen even to this day. Tt
is very probable that every colonial family has an inherited
right to arms, though very few can trace the intervening genera-
tions back to the founder of his line or the ancient bearer by the
record. That our ancestors, like their kindred in Europe, in
some instances used such arms as they had reason to believe
had been the ensigns of their family, when the actual proof was
wanting, was natural and in no way reprehensible. The English
heralds have provided a way for the enrollment of such assump-
tions among the authorized arms. This is done by a new grant
(though discreetly called generally a "confirmation") of the very
arms the family had adopted. To avoid duplication a slight
change may sometimes be made by the herald, that is unnotice-
able except to the professional eye, yet sufficient to mark a
distinction. These officers are so very obliging if one only pays
their fees.

In America there has never been a way to have an official
"confirmation" of arms. In a few cases a grant of arms made
to an Englishman has carried with it the name of his son in
America, and there is one case upon record where a man of New
England origin, but at the time of his application an admiral in
the British navy, obtained from the college a grant on the
representation that his family was "by tradition" a branch of
one of the same name in England.

So general had been the assumption of arms and the claim
of right by descent, though no pedigree had been entered with
the heralds, and so universal the knowledge that the official
records held only a small part of the arms justly borne, that
Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster king of arms, issued his " General
y4rtnory." This was an honest effort to give a register of all arms
in use at any period in Great Britain and Ireland, and has run
through many editions and brought upon its author unbounded
abuse from his brother heralds during his life and after his death.

COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 29

It is a work of great value, however the supporters of the college
in England and their imitators here may regard it, for it has
preserved the blazonry of thousands of arms that otherwise
would be lost.

There are families in England who are able to trace lineage
to remote generations, who make no attempt to satisfy the
officers of arms, being quite content in the possession of shields
that have long been borne by their ancestors. No new grant
from the college would be accepted by them as a substitute under
any circumstances. Lineage is not by any means an attribute
peculiar to the nobility, for Macaulay tells us, "Pedigrees as long
and escutcheons as old were to be found out of the House of
Lords as in it. There were new men who bore the highest titles
and there were untitled men known to be descended from knights
who broke the Saxon ranks at Hastings and scaled the walls of
Jerusalem."

Among the untitled men that made up the pioneers of New
England it is possible now to trace in some cases to the like
period, and our old line American families today have preserved
the evidences of descent in much more complete lines than have
the peerage of England. The proofs of arms that were sufficient
for the visitations, should be accepted here and applied to the
arms left by our American progenitors, and it should never be
deemed the province of any historical society to assail the record
of an American heraldic tombstone.

Very industriously do the ruling spirits of the New England
society try to instil this doctrine that arms are property in the
sense that lands and houses are possessions protected in the law.
They are imitating the course of the modern English herald who
seeks in England to place arms upon this footing that he may
draw revenue from every bearer. His efforts thus far have had
the result to make it impossible to know now who are by inlier-
itance entitled to bear them in that country. His American
allies in the New England society have not this motive and we
can ascribe their position to Anglo-mania solely. Most arms,
excepting only the late grants, were arms of assumption — the
fancv of their first bearer transmitted to his descendants. When
kings or legis^.atures took these matters under their control,
confirmation was given to the arms thus created, and in some
countries voluntary assumption was still permitted, while pro-
viding means for recording such assumptions and making the

30 COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

bearings hereditary. Wherever the governmental power was not
exercised, arms bearing rested in its original state, wholly at
the will of the individual. The American colonies were never
included within such restriction, and the general adoption of
arms here previous to the revolution was entirely within the
rights of the people. In Scotland, before the union with Eng-
land, the legislature passed restrictive measures as to arms,
and this old law still exists, and the resident families there
generally comply with it. In no other part of the British Em-
pire has there ever been any legal obstacle to prevent a man
from bearing such arms as he chose.

It is a matter of little real concern, in examining the relics
of our colonial period, whether this or that coat of arms had come
down through a series of generations to its then claimant or was
the original device of the man who bore it. It should be sufhcient
that a man of colonial times claimed and used it, and no other
credential should ever be asked or wanted. The heraldry of
America should rest upon the heraldic remains of these colonial
days, the evidence of tombstone, seal and bookplate, of heir-
looms— plate, paintings and embroidery — and the evidences
of every other nature that can now be brought forth to show
the arms then used.

To impeach, as do our critics, the claims of Benjamin
Franklin and many more of the leading spirits of the revolution,
the very founders of this nation, is almost sacrilegious; and the
efforts of these same men to place the bearings of Washington
upon a different and firmer basis are ridiculous and amusing.
By the rules of the college of arms the coat that the father of our
country proudly displayed upon his carriage was "without
authority," yet no true American would for a moment ask to
know more than that he bore it.

Of the arms in use in the United States at the present time,
very many are recent productions. In this land, where the peo-
ple are the sovereign we may freely admit the right of every
man to assume and display such devices ; but the antiquary will
feel interest only in those arms that have the stamp of time and
were borne by the forefathers. No systematic attempt has ever
been made to collect or compile a record of such, and the cause
of colonial heraldry is in sad need of some published roll of arms
bearers. As the time passes on the possibility of an approach

COAT ARMOR IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 51

to completeness grows steadily less, and the wonder is that the
work has not before this been done.

NOTE.

Since the above paper was read at the meeting of the Association in
if)02, I have learned that many English antiquaries liave of late taken
very similar ground on this question to that advocated by me. Among them,
E. Marion Chadwick, Esq., an eminent lawyer, as well as an accomplished
writer on archaeology and armory, has declared: " That it is only a sovereign
power which can grant arms, I flatly deny. It has been the practice of
persons and families, not to speak of tribes and nations in all countries,
and in all ages, to use symbols for the purposes of identification, historical
record, marks of ownership, and in various other ways, and this is the
simple and uni\ers.tl form of heraldry. It is simply nonsense to say that the
whole system of the use of symbols, must be changed in its nature or pur-
pose, or in any other way by the mere fact of placing the symbol or combina-
tion of svmbols on a shield."

H. S. R.

^/* ^/^ ^y%

SOME DESCENDANTS OF
GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON.

By Hamline Elijah Robinson, of Maryville, Missouri.

THE first notice of record which I have been able to
find of this ancestor of a now widely spread family,
is from Suffolk Deeds, Book i, page 283, where it
is stated that on July 17, 1656, he witnessed a
deed given by Joshua Hues and Henry Fowler to
Thomas Savage.

On Oct. 3, 1657, George Robinson was mar-
ried to Mary Bushnell, by Governor John Endecott.
She was born in England in 1634, and was daugh-
ter of Francis Bushnell, a carpenter, who came to America in
April, 1635, with his wife Martha and child Mary. He first
settled in Boston, but soon removed to the Winthrop farm at
Ten Hills. He was admitted freeman at Salem, and died
March 28, 1636. The widow, Martha, returned to Boston,
where on Feb. 3, 1638, she was admitted to the church by
Mr. John Cotton, who on the 17th of the same month bap-
tised Mary.

To George and Mary (Bushnell) Robinson were given three
children, of record,

George^, born March 30, 1658.

John, born 1661.

Martha, born March 31, 1665.

In Suffolk Deeds, Book 3, page 366, is recorded an execu-
tion against John Horsam, master of the ship Samson, in favor
of George Robinson, mate, for "thirteene pounds, fower shill-
ings, and fower pence, for wages due."

George Robinson is witness to an endorsement on a deed
dated January 16, 1678, given by Sarah Jameson to William
Gard, recorded in Suffolk Deeds, Book 11, page 217,

His Signature.

SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON 3}

The great fire of November 27, 1676, in Boston, seems to
have stirred the authorities towards measures of prevention of
such losses, and a fire engine was ordered from England. In
the town records under date of Jan, 28, 1678-9, we find the fol-
lowing entry:

" In case of Fire in y*" towne where there is occation to
make vse of y*^ Engine lately come from England, Thomas
Akins, Carpenter is desired & doth ingage to take care of the
Manageing of the s^ Engine in y*^ worke intended & secure it
y*' best he can from damage & hath made choyce of y*' severall
psons followinge to be his Assistants which are aproved of
and are promised to be paid for their paines about the worke.
The persons are Obediah Gill, John Raynsford, John Barnard,
Thomas Elbridge, Arth"" Smith, John Mills, Caleb Rawlins,
John Wakefield, Sam" Greenwood, Edward Martin"", Thomas
Barnard, George Robinson."

This was the first paid fire department of Boston and
George Robinson was one of the first members.

On April 25, i68r, George^ Robinson was chosen one of
the tithing men for Major Thomas Clarke's Company in Boston,
His name is found in various tax lists, etc, of Boston, and he
seems to have been a man of some substance.

Mary Bushnell Robinson died before 1698, for on April 7th
of that year George Robinson and Sarah Maverick were mar-
ried by Mr, Cotton Mather. He appears not to have lived
many years after his second marriage, for we find the following
entry in the Boston Town records:

" Sarah Robinson, widd" , her Petition for license to Sell
Strong drink by retayle both within doors & without dissap-
proved by the Selectman July 17th, — and since by y'" approved
July 12th, 1702."

George* Robinson, born March 30, 1658, joined the second
church in Boston in 1680. He was married about that time to
Elizabeth , whose maiden name is as yet undiscov-
ered. To them were given eight children, as follows:

George', born December 28, 1680.

John, born June 19, 1684.

Martha, born August 8, 1687, died young.

Nathaniel, born June 22, 1689.

Nathaniel, born February 7, 1690.

Robert, born January 23, 1692.

34 SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON.

Sarah, born February 5, 169J.

Martha, born January 7, 1695.

In 1694, George- Robinson joined the Ancient and Honor-
able Artillery Company, and in 1697 he was chosen third Ser-
geant. He was earlier a member of Major John Richard's
Company, of which he was chosen tithing man, May 5, 1686.
On March 11, 1694-5 he was elected one the Constables of
Boston, and on March 14, 1714-15 he was elected one of the
tithing men.

I715. GEORGE^.

Elizabeth Robinson died July 7, 1697. George Robinson
and Deborah Burrill were married November 30, 1710, Rev.
Cotton Mather performing the ceremony. About this time he
removed to Dedham, where he had acquired land some time
previous, for we find him listed on No. 1, Country rate, in
June, 1691. There he died in August, 1726, and among the
articles named in his inventory is "Armour, 16 s.," evidently a
relic of his soldiering days.

George^ Robinson, born December 28, 1680, settled in
Dedham. He married at Sherborn, January 17, 1707, Mary
Learned, daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Bigelow) Learned. Isaac
Learned was one of the wounded in the Great Swamp Fight of
December 19, 1675, and John Bigelow, father of Sarah, was a
soldier in both the Pequot and King Phillip's Wars. He was
also a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com-
pany, which he joined in 17 10.

George^ and Mary (Learned) Robinson had seven children,
the first six recorded at Needham and the last at Dudley, Mass.
They were:

Mary, born August 13, 1708, married Joseph Wakefield and
had six children.

Sarah, born September 20, 1711, married John Thompson
and had one son.

Eliakim, born September 12, 1714, died in infancy.

Eliakim, born July 2, 1716, died January 17, 1734.

Paul, born July 2, 17 17.

SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (bUSHNELL) ROBINSON. }^

Silas, born Nov. 19, 1721, married Susannah Moore and had
sixteen children. Tlieir descendants are many at Oxford, Mass.,
Hartwick, N. Y., and in the West,

Samuel, born June ig, 1726, married his cousin Hannah
Learned of Oxford, Mass. Their descendants are found in
Worcester County, and elsewhere.

In 1 7 19 George^ Robinson bought 500 acres of land in
Oxford, Mass., of Col. WilHam Dudley of Roxbury, moving to
his new home in 1723. That year he bought 225 acres more,
which lay just across the line in Connecticut. At the first town
meeting held in Dudley after its incorporation in 1732, George
Robinson was elected one of the Selectmen, and again in 1740
and 1 741. He built the first mill in Dudley. He gave his
children farms as they came of age, and seems to have been a
thrifty citizen. Mary (Learned) Robinson died June 30, 1750,
and George^ Robinson died April 13, 1752.

Taking up the line of my own immediate descent, Paul*
Robinson, born July 2, 1717, grew to manhood in Dudley. He
bought a tract of land there when he was but 18 years old,
and after becoming of age his father gave him another farm.
In 1740, he was elected one of the Constables of Dudley and
afterwards served on many important town committees. In
1758 he w^as Captain of the Dudley Militia. Late in life he
moved across the line into what is now Thompson, Conn., where
he died.

SIGNATURE OF PAUL* ROBINSON.

Paul* Robinson was married ist, in May, 1737, to Mary
Jones, daughter of Col. Jones of Hopkinton, Mass., by whom
he had six children, nearly all of whom died young. Mary
(Jones) Robinson died March 8, 1748, and in 1749 Paul* Rob-
inson married 2nd, Hannah Trumbull, daughter of Joseph and
Abia (Gale) Trumbull of Framingham, Oxford and Leicester,
Mass. On both sides Hannah Trumbull was descended from
men who did valiant service in the Pequot and King Phillip's
Wars, and in the 1690 expedition to Canada.

}6 SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON.

o
s

SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON, 37

The children of Capt. Paul and Hannah (Trumbull) Rob-
inson were:

Elijah, born July 25, 1750,

Aaron, born January 27, 1753, served in the Revolution,
and has descendants living in Thompson, Conn., Springfield,
Mass., and elsewhere.

Mary, born December 19, 1754, married a Mr. Jewell.

Moses, born May 3, 1757.

John, born May 15, 1759.

Mehitable, born September 25, 1761, married a Mr. Shaw.

Phoebe, born June 6, 1764, unmarried.

These children were all alive August 15, 1798, when their
mother made a will in which she names each of them.

About 1765 Paul* Robinson and family moved to Thomp-
son (then Killingly), Conn., to the farm left him by his father,
and there he died, his wife Hannah surviving him and dying
in 1798.

Elijah^ Robinson the oldest child of Capt. Paul and Han-
nah (Trumbull) Robinson, born in Dudley, Mass., July 25,
1750, grew to manhood on a farm in Killingly, Conn. In April,
1775, l^G marched out at the Lexington Alarm in the Company
of Capt. Joseph Elliott from Killingly. On May S, 1775, ^"^e
again enlisted in Capt. Elliott's Company (8th) of Col. Israel
Putnam's Regiment (3rd) and served during the siege of Bos-
ton, and was engaged at the battle of Bunker Hill. In 1780,
Elijah^ Robinson was married to Mary Dike of Thompson, two
of whose brothers served with him in Putnam's Regiment, one
of them dying in the service. She was descended from Anthony
Dike, who came over in the Ann in 1623, and who was lost dur-
ing the great storm of December 15, 1638, while in command
of a trading vessel. Elijah^ Robinson and family moved to
Windham County, Vermont, in 1800, and settled on a hill farm
in Townshend, and he and wife are buried in the old cemetery
of that town. Two of his children remained near their par-
ents, the other four settling in Jamaica, about 12 miles to the
westward. Mary (Dike) Robinson died February 22, 1822, aged
71 years, and Elijah^ Robinson died August 6, 1826, aged 76
vears.

SIGNATURE OF PM.IJAir'" ROBINSON — THE REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER.

38 SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON.

SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (bUSHNELL) ROBINSON. }q

Their old farm is now deserted. Their children were:

James^ married, settled in Jamaica, Vt., had six children
whose descendants are mostly in the West.

John, born January 24, 1782.

Amaziah, born 1785, remained a bachelor, died Feb. 12,
1852, aged 67 years, and is buried by the side of his parents.

Rachel, born March, 1787, married Benjamin Tourtellot of
the Rhode Island family of that name. He died October 3,
1848, aged 61 years and 5 months, and she died September 11,
1858, aged 71 years and 6 months. Their descendants are liv-
ing in Grafton, Vt., and the West.

Hiram, raised a family which still lives in Jamaica, Vt.

Reuben died in Savannah, Ga., a young man.

John^ Robinson grew up on a farm in Thompson, Conn.
He then went to work for William Gray, the merchant prince
of Boston, and on Oct. loth, 1804, he was married at Dorches-
ter, Mass., to Hannah Patch, daughter of John and Lucy
(Safiford) Patch of Ipswich, where John was member of the
Committee of Correspondence and Safety in 1775. Hannah was
baptised by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, the father of the Ordinance
of 1787, which made the Northwest free territory. Soon after
their marriage, John and Hannah (Patch) Robinson, moved to
Vermont, and settled on West Hill in Jamaica, battling with
the bleak and stony place of their adoption. The view of this
home is given elsewhere, taken in 1902, from the hillside look-
ing westward. On the left of the picture, in front of the house,
is seen Stratton Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Ver-
mont. The old apple tree, from a picture taken at the same
time, was planted when the farm was first settled, and is now
healthy and vigorous and still bearing. It measures over 9 feet
in circumference 3 feet above the ground. Hannah was a
most saintly woman, one of the early Methodists of New Eng-
land. She died in Jamaica, July 12, 1855, and John" Robinson
died there August 15, 1865. The scene of their strenuous
labors is now a deserted farm. Their children were:

Lucy, born June 18, 1805, married in 1829 Dexter Hay-
ward, who was born in Jamaica, June 11, 1805. They raised a
family of six children, all of whom are still living in Winhall,
and Londonderry, Vermont. He died April 28, and she Novem-
ber 22, 1874.

Patty, born June 4, 1807, married Lewis Williams and had

40 SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL.) ROBINSON.

five children, whose descendants are living in CaHfornia, Massa-
chusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. She died in 1859.

Rachel, born January 12, died August 23, 1809.

Hannah, born March 4, 1810, married William Conkey of
Worcester, Mass., and died there February 21, 1873, leaving
one son William.

Mary Ann, born November 3, 181 1, married Ephraim
Glazier and had six children. The family moved to Illinois
in 1855, and there she died July 21, i8"6o. The children live in
Nebraska.

John Patch, born June 27, 1814, spent his life as a farmer
in his native town, dying there in September, 1898. In April,
1838, he married Mary Cheney Brown, widow of Orrin Brown,
and had a family of five children who live af Jamaica, Vermont,
and Leicester, Mass. Their oldest son was killed during the
war of the Rebellion, and another son served his country,
returning home at the close of that war. '

Elijah, born August 21, 181 7.

Elijah'' Robinson, born in Jamaica, Vermont, August 21,
1 817, grew to manhood on his father's farm. He then studied
for the ministry, entering the Methodist Episcopal Conference
in June, 1843. On June 10, 1844,116 was married at Newfane,
Vermont, to Ellen Brown, who was born January 26, 1826,
in Jamaica, Vermont, the daughter of Orrin and Mary Read
(Cheney) Brown. Her grandfather and great-grandfather
Brown, and grandfather Cheney and great-grandfather Read,
all served their country during the Revolution. After filling
appointments in Vermont until 1855, in that year Rev. Elijah'
Robinson moved West, settling in Wisconsin. He joined the
Wisconsin Methodist Episcopal Conference, filling several
appointments in that State, but in the Fall of i860 continued
ill-health forced him to retire from active work. Both he and
his wife were of most eminent Christian character, leaving a
holy memory to their children. Ellen (Brown) Robinson died
May 24, 1881, and Elijah'' Robinson died March 10, 1887, both
at Evansville, Wisconsin. Their children were:

Hamline Elijah'**, born April 22, 1845, ^^ Brattleboro, Ver-
mont. Was prepared to enter college in the Sophomore year,
but enlisted in Company F, i6th Regt. Wisconsin Infantry, and
served until the close of the war. He settled in Maryville,
Missouri, where he married, December 25, 1871, Florence

SOME DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE AND MARY (BUSHNELL) ROBINSON. 4 1

Annetta Donaldson, born in Schoharie County, New York,
whose grandfather and great-grandfather both served in the
Revolution. They have three children. He has been editor
of the Maryville Republican for over thirty years.

Ellen Hannah, born at Irasburg, Vermont, July 30, 1850,
died at Evansville, Wisconsin, October 3, 1864.

Theodore Pierson, bom at Irasburg, Vermont, June 3, 1852,
studied Art in France and became a noted impressionist painter.
While at the height of reputation as such in New York City,
where he had established his studio, he died April 2, 1896, having
been a life long sufferer from asthma.

John Cheney, born December 2, 1859, at Whitewater, Wis-
consin, married May Emery, December 25, 1880, and has three
children. He is a successful farmer and stock raiser at Evans-
ville, Wisconsin.

Grant, born January 10, died February 27, 1864, at Evans-
ville, Wis.

Mary, born January 25, died February i, 1865, at Evans-
ville, Wis.

I have endeavored to present to your approval, within the
limits proper for such an occasion, an epitome of the line of
Robinsons to which I am proud to belong. I trust you will not
deem it unseemly when I call your attention to the fact that
every family to which I have referred, and all of the ancestry
which time has compelled me to pass unnoticed, was in New
England, prior to 1650. It is pardonable in this city, the
scene of the first settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
to refer with pride to such unmixed Yankee descent. And I
may further state in closing, that I am directly descended, on
my father's side, from Thomas Gardner, the first Overseer of
the Cape Ann Plantation, which was within sight of our present
gathering.

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION

A WANDERING TRIBE SENDS GREETING.

WE are the descendants of a branch of the family of
George^ Robinson, an original proprietor and first
settler in the part of Rehoboth, Mass., now called
Attleboro. This town suffered severely in King
Phillip's War, and George Robinson contributed
^4— I2s. toward the expense of carrying it on, and
also served in Major Bradford's command in his
campaign against the sachem. As the block houses,
built for defense, were the only ones left standing in
the town, we have reason to think our ancestor not only gave
time and money but lost his home in that trying period.

His son George- had, among other children, a son, Nathan-
iel-^, who in turn had a son, George*, who was born in Attleboro,
and was the father of a patriarchal family of eighteen boys and
girls, whom he is said to have governed well. The Christian
principles which guided his life were accepted l)y him at the
early age of 20. He was active in his church relations and not
less interested in the welfare of his country. He served as
second lieutenant on the "Lexington Alarm" and later in the
defence of Boston and Rhode Island. The quaint record tells us
" he never had anything to do in the law ; had few or no ene-
mies, and departed this life in peace, August 19, 1812, at the
place of his nativity," aged eighty-six. His second wife and
widow removed with her children to Maine, but their history
does not come within the scope of this paper.

George* Robinson's first wife was Abigail Everett, a descend-
ant of Richard Everett, the emigrant, and an original proprietor
of Dedham. This couple numbered among their ancestors, be-
sides those given, Gov. Thos. May hew and John Daggett of
Martha's Vineyard, Dea. John Guild of Dedham, John Johnson
and Robert Pepper of Roxbur}^ and John Fuller, Thomas

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION. 43

Emerson and Daniel Ring of Ipswich, with wives as staunch and
true as themselves.

Of the seven children of George* and Abigail (Everett)
Robinson four died in infancy, and their youngest child, Davidf
our ancestor, when only a little over a year old was motherless.
In 1780 he enlisted in the War of the Revolution and served
thirteen months. In a descriptive record of his Company his
height is given as " five feet five inches, age nineteen, and com-
plection light."

When about twenty-two he married Anna Whitaker, but
whether in Massachusetts or after his removal to New Hamp-
shire we have not ascertained. The father of the writer is sure
his father, who was David's -^oldest son, was born in Cornish, N.H.
David^gave his mother's maiden name to his oldest son Everett",.
The name has been kept up in each generation, and the youngest
member of this branch of the family has just had the name
bestowed upon her.

David -^ and Anna (Whitaker) Robinson had nine children,
five sons and four daughters, all of whom lived, reared families,
and died in and near the town of Cornish, N. H.

David had a daughter, Cynthia, wdiose name has been
handed down in connection with an incident worth}' of record
here. The writer would remark in passing that every Robinson
she has seen or heard of has a keen sense of humor.

A church or family quarrel had shaken the town of Cornish
from center to circumference when a good minister took the
matter up, called all the parties to a conference and so vigorously
exhorted them on the enormity of their sin that they repented,
said they would be good and .shook hands all around. Before
they could separate, however, a busybody present managed to
mar the perfect harmony, and it came to pass that as they filed
out shaking hands with the good parson, when it came Cynthia's
turn and he thanked her for being so forgiving, etc., she re-
marked : "Yes; but forgivin' aint forgettin' ; and the woman
behind her added before the parson could catch his breath : ' 'An'
my memory is just as good as Cynthia's !" The expression has
become a proverb in the family.

But that was a digression. We must go back to the oldest
son of David", Everett'' by name, who married, April 17, 1805,
Julia Williams, whose father, William Williams, served his
country in the War of the Revolution, both on land and on sea.

44 TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION.

Through her mother, Susanna Pond, she was descended from
Daniel Pond, Jonathan Fairbanks, Michael Metcalf, and other
emigrants and first settlers of Dedham, Mass.

This couple had eight children, all born in Cornish, N. H.,
and it is of this family the writer has unexpectedly become the
historian. The father, Everett®, followed the traditions of the
family, and in the w^ar of 1812-14 went with the New Hampshire
troops to the defence of Buffalo.

His oldest son, Williams' Dean, married Zilpha Clement of
Plainfield in 1830, and died in Lowell, Mass., in 1854, leaving
seven children and a widow who surviv^ed him nearl)' fifty 3-ears.
Williams" Dean's two oldest children, Zilpha^ and George*', have
never left New England. Orrin** Williams, the third son, at
eighteen, went with his uncle, familiarly called "S.S.", to
Northern Michigan. The " Soo " Canal was not built and the
only boats on Lake Superior were three small steamers w^hich
had been hauled overland past the " Soo " Rapids. On one of
these the party embarked ; in one harbor they spent three days
on a rock, but at last reached the little town where they were to
land. From there they went in canoes, paddled by Indians,
several miles into the interior to the tracts of land where copper
was said to be abundant. They found rough log houses made
ready for them by " S. S." Robinson, who had wintered there.
The ladies of the party did not see a white woman from their
artival in May until the winter snows made travelling to other
mines possible. Indians were daily visitors and we cherish a set
of silver spoons which the quick wit of the housewife prevented
an Indian brave from carrying off. Those were pioneer days !
For weeks they were shut away from the rest of the world. The
dog train mail which came in the early winter told of the panic
of 1853-4, and with the Spring the mines were abandoned. Mr,
Orrin Robinson left his uncle and went overland from the Lake
Superior country to Iowa. An account of his adventures on
that journey would fill a book, and it would be good reading.
One morning he wakened in a cabin he had reached late the
night before, to find the famih-, which included young ladies, at
breakfast almost at his bedside. In a frantic attempt to get up
unnoticed he fell into the half cellar beneath and was rescued
under most embarrassing circumstances. A few years in Iowa
sufficed and he returned to Michigan where he has been active
in business and politics, having served his adopted State in its

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION. 45

IvCgislature and twice as Lieutenant-Governor. He ha.s only one
son and one daughter living.

Williams' Dean's sons, Oscar^ David and Orcemus'' Blodgett,
the da}- they graduated from Kimball Union Academy at Meri-
den, N. H., in i86r, enlisted for "four years or for the war,"
and went through their term of service almost without a scratch.
One came out a Captain and the other a Lieutenant. Captain
Oscar D. then went to Dartmouth, graduated, and for about

EX-LIEUT. GOVERNOR O. \V. ROBINSON.

thirty years has been the honored Principal of the High School
at Albany, N. Y. Lieut. Orcemus B. has three children and one
or two grandchildren, and has had his home in Northern Michi-
gan for many years.

During the war one of the daughters of Williams'' Dean was
a pupil-teacher in a Woman's College in Winchester, Tenn., and
received from it an academic degree. Her new calico dress on
graduation day was the envy of the entire class to whom the
fortunes of war had brought only misfortune.

Everetts'' third son, Horace'' Everett, was a sailor and a
wanderer. At the time of his death he was a gunner in the

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION.

CAl'T. O. 1). KOKINSON,
I'RINCIPAI. OK ALBANY, N. Y., HIGH SCHOOL.

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION. 47

United States service, and he is buried on Whampoa Island in
the China Sea.

Jesse' Larned, was Everett's*^ fourth son. He married
Clementine Pease and had nine children, only three of whom
survive. He lived and died in Lowell, proud to have served his
country in the Civil War. One of his sons, after a life of adven-
ture, was lost on his way to Alaska. A son lives in Lowell and has
a family. One daughter is in Chicago, and one in Rhode Island.

Everett's'' two daughters died young and only one married.
His seventh child, Leonard \ grew up in Cornish, N. H.; learned
a stone-mason's trade, and for a time lived in Lowell. A desire
for adventure led him to make a voyage to California in '49 or
perhaps earlier. His young sons told their still younger cousins
that their father had seen cannibals at their feasts ; and with
pride and awe showed a strange club taken from the savages as
a proof of their warlike tendencies. In 1854 or 1855 Leonard
went to Minnesota with his family. In 1859 he wrote " Pike's
Peak or Bust " on a "prairie schooner" and joined the other
gold seekers who returned disappointed. Later he spent .some
years in California again, but returned to Sauk Rapids, Minn.
When quite advanced in life he went to Tampa, Fla., and was
one of the yellow fever victims of 1887. Two of his sons live in
Minnesota and one in Kansas ; his onl}' daughter, now a widow,
lives in Chicago, 111.

The youngest of Everett's'' children, SamueP Stillman, the
" S. S " previously mentioned, hardly remembers his mother, who
died when he was two and a half years old. He was brought up
on a farm in Cornish, N. H., and at twenty-one was six feet two
in his stockings and of proportionate weight. He learned the
stone-cutter's trade and was a foreman of such work on the
Vermont Central R.R. when it was being built. From the early
50's until within a few years he has been the successful manager
of large mining properties in Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, and
New Mexico. He is a practical geologist, and though now
seventy-eight, within two ^-ears has made a winter trip to Mon-
tana to examine some mines.

For some years he has made his home on a farm near
Detroit ; and he has expres.sed the opinion that farming is the
most dangerous occupation a man can engage in. He has three
daughters, two sons and thirteen grandchildren, but only two
grandsons to hand down the name.

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION.

-J

SAMUEL STILLMAN ROBINSON.
DIKI) JUNE 13, 1904, PONTIAC, MICH.

TO THE ROBINSON ASSOCIATION. 49

I have omitted nearly all of the dates, for they add to the
dullness of an after-dinner paper ; and are they not all to be
found in the Robinson Genealogy which our kinsman is com-
piling ?

We are interested in all who bear the name of Robinson,
and wish the Robinson Association a long life and much pros-
perity.

With great regret that I cannot look into your faces at this
time, I am,

Sincerel)' your kinswoman,

Ida*^ Robinson Bronson.
Chicago, III. (Mrs. Edward P. Bronson.)

^ ^ ^

JOHN ROBINSON.

A DESCENDANT OE ABRAHAM ROBINSON OF
ANNISQUAM. NOW GLOUCESTER, MASS.

By Mrs. Martha A. Robinson, Portland, Me.

JOHN ROBINSON was a descendant of Abraham
Robinson, who came to America in 1630, it is
supposed, in the ship ''Lyon.'"' Where he first
located there is no known record, but there is a
record of his death on February 23, 1645, at
Annisquam.

Abraham had a son who bore his father's name,
born about 1644, and who died about 1740. He
was married in Gloucester, Mass., on the 7th of
July, 1668. He married Mary Harrenden, who died in Gloucester,
September 28, 1725. They had twelve children: Mary^, who
married John Elwell ; Sarah^, who married John Putnam ; Eliza-
beth^, who married Timothy Somes for her first husband, and
John Brown for her second husband; Abigail^, who married
Joseph York ; Abraham', who married Sarah York for his
first wife, and Anna Harney, for his second; Andrew^ who
married Rebecca Ingersoll ; Stephen', who married Sarah Smith
for his first wife, and Edith Ingersoll for his second ; Ann', who
married Samuel Davis; Dorcas', who married Jonathan Stanwood;
Hannah' , who died single, and Jane' , who married John Williams.
Abraham' Robinson, the fourth child, was born in Glouces-
ter, Mass., on the 15th of October, 1677, and died there on the
28th of December, 1724. His first wife was Sarah York, and
second, Anna Harney. Their eleven children were: Abraham*
who married Lydia Day; Isaac*, who died in infancy; Samuel*,
who married Elizabeth Eittlefield; Sarah*, who married John
Saw-yer; Andrew*, who married Martha Gardiner; Mar>^*, who
died single; John*, who married Mehitable Woodbury; Jona-
than*, Hannah*, Davnd*, and Abigail*.

JOHN ROBINSON.

^"^^wWiP^^IPf*'-'"

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-c- in Hmd before tiie Enfealmg hereof, well and .truly iinid by ^jt^/f..^ Q/ (/^e ^>r-' -*^J*/^iir-%,
tlie Receipt whereof ^ do hf^eby acknowledge, and ■ -

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\ppurtenanctt frec«nd clear, and freely and. clearly 'u.t;..,;; J, .
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DEEU OF JOHN* ROBINSON TO JOSHUA ANI> I'ETEIi WOOIHiUKV.

<y2 JOHN ROBINSON.

John* Robinson, the seventh child, married Mehitable Wood-
bury- on the 9th of February-, 1738. She was the daughter of
Joshua Woodbury, who was born in Beverly, Mass., in the 3'ear
1693.

It is recorded that this Joshua ' ' was the third generation of
Woodbur\-s in America, and settled in Falmouth (now Cape
Elizabeth, Me.) in 1727, on land situated on the northeast side
of Simontons" Cove (so called), which juts out from the shore to
the Cottage Road, taking in the square from Feeble Street. He
followed the business of tanning and curr\'ing leather, accumulat-
ing a handsome property by his good management and industry."

Seventeen years after his marriage, it appears from a deed,
(a reduced photographic copy of which is here inserted) that
John* Robinson sold his house and land in Falmouth, to Joshua
and Peter Woodbury on the 28th day of February', 1755.

Of the children of John* and Mehitable Robinson, the writer
has been able to find only a record of three sons, namely, Joshua^
called Captain Joshua, SamueP and Ebenezer^, v^dio were sea-
captains.

Captain Joshua^ Robinson, was born on the 9th of March,

1756, and died on the ist of December, 1821. He married Hannah
Stone, who was bom on the 2nd of Ma3^ 1765, and died on the
22nd of July, 1841. They had twelve children: Jenny^, John'',
Joshua^, Hannah '', who died, Hannah '', Andrew^, Marj-^,
Stephenira", Betsey'', Mehitable", George'' and Martha".

Of the.se children, Jenny", married Robert Barbour; Mar>-",
married John Newcomb, and Betse^^", married Noah Edgecomb.

There are six grandchildren of Captain Joshua^ and Hannah
Robinson living, viz.: George'', Caroline'', and Albert^ Staples;
Mrs. Mary Robinson Fuller; Mr. Russell Barbour, and Mrs.
George Milliken. There are ten great-grandchildren, and thir-
teen great-great-grandchildren.

Captain Joshua^ Robinson, sensed in the Rev^olutionan>' War
as a private, enlisting on the 12th of May, 1774, in Captain
Bradi.sh"s Company, Col. Phinney's Regiment.

Captain Ebenezer^ Robinson, married Mar}' White on the
1 6th of January', 1764. A daughter of Ebenezer and Mary
(White) Robinson, Mar>'", who married Jesse Willard, died Sept.
18, 1854. A daughter of this Jesse and Mary Robinson Willard,
who was also named Mary'', married Mr. Woodbury.

Captain Ebenezer^ Roljinson built about 1760, on the main

JOHN ROBINSON.

Street of Cape Elizabeth, at the head of Simonton's Cove, a
dwelling house which stood until 1851, when it was taken down
and rebuilt on another location. On the foundations of the old
house Captain Caleb Willard, now in his eighty -first year, a
grandson of Captain Ebenezer^ Robinson, has erected a spacious
mansion which is occupied by himself and family.

Mr. B. F. Woodbury of Willard, Me., and Mrs. James E.
McDow^ell of Portland, Me., are children of Mrs. Mary' Robin.son

CAl'T. EHF.NEZEK' KOHINSON's HOUSE, HLII.T AiiOUU 1 760.

(Willard)- Woodbury, and I am told that there are living in Cum-
berland, Me., eight in the fourth generation, and twenty-.seven in
the fifth generation, and at least fifty in the .sixth generation of
the descendants of Ebenezer and Mary (White) Robinson.

Samuel^ Robin.son, son of John* and Mehitable Robin.son,
was born in Cape Ehzabeth, Me., in 1758. He married on the
17th of Sept., 1 78 1, Elizabeth Emery, a daughter of John Emery,
who settled in Cape Elizabeth on the " Point." They had eight
children: (i) Betsey'', born Nov. 2, 1782. and who died I'eb. 22,

JOHN ROBINSON.

1786; (2) Samuel", who married Harriet Ilsley, and have seven
children, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren now
living; (3) Ebenezer^, who married for his first wife Hannah
Noyes, and second, Betsey E. Peabody, had six children, not
one descendant now living; (4) John Emery", who married

CAPT. samup:i.^ Robinson.

Sarah H. Hamon, had nine children, one son living, Mr.
Albion'' K. P. Robinson, and eleven grandchildren and nine
great grandchildren; (5) Betsey", who married Thomas Capen,
and had one daughter; (6) Harriet", who married Thomas Capen
as his second wife and had five children, one grandson living;
(7) Woodbury", who married Louisa A. Tolford, and had three

JOHN ROBINSON. S5

sons, two are now living, the third son FrankHn'' Robinson, the
Vice-President of the Robinson Association and husband of the
writer, died on the 14th of August, 1902. There are six grand-
children and three great-grandchildren Hving;* (8) William Dodge,
who married Jannett McLellen Warren ; they had six children,
four of whom are now living, and eight grandchildren and eleven
great-grandchildren.

SamueP Robinson, son of John and Mehitable Robinson, was
a sea captain. Shortly before starting on his last voyage, he
purchased a new house on the corner of Congress and Wilmot
Streets, Portland, Me., which he intended to occupy on his
return, and retire from his sea-faring life. His family, wishing
to give him a surprise, moved into the house and awaited his
arrival. He came into the port of Boston, when, after a little
delay, he set sail for Portland. Somewhere on his course, his
ship and all on board were lost. Nothing was ever known
regarding the catastrophe.

Mr. Robinson serv^ed in the same company and regiment with
his father in the Revolutionary War. He was a musician, and
was promoted to the office of Drum-Major. His wife survived
him for thirty-three years. As a pensioner of the war. she
received a land grant in Eastern Maine, and a .stipend of $108.00
per annum, t

* Since the writing of this paper one of the grandchildren of Captain
Woodbury Robinson, Arthur H. Robinson, son of Charles Woodbury Robin-
son has died. He enlisted in Liverpool, Eng., and served two years in the
Boer War. He decided to remain in that country, but recently passed away
from a stroke of apoplexy.

f Bureau of Pensions. Washington, D. C,
March 18, 1903.

To Mrs. Franklin Robinson, No. 203 Cumberland St., Portland, Me.

Madam: — In reply to your request for a statement of the military history
of Samuel Robinson, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, you will find below
the desired information as contained in his widow's application for pension
on file in this Bureau. January i, 1777, date of enlistment. Length of service
three years. Rank, Drum-Major. Under Capt. Clark, Col. Tupper's Regi-
ment, State of Massachusetts. Battles engaged in: Bennington, Saratoga and
Monmouth. Residence of soldier at enlistment. Cape Elizabeth. Me. Date
of application for pension, by the widow. August 10, 1838. Residence at date
of application of widow. Portland, Me. Her age at date of application,
seventy-four years. Remarks: He married Elizabeth Emery. .September
17. 1781. and died at sea in .August, 1806. while on a voyage in the brig
'■ Polly" from Portland to Charleston, S. C. Said Elizabeth was pensioned
as his widow.

Very respectfully,

J. C. Davenport,

Acting Commissioner.

^6 JOHN ROBINSON.

John* Robinson, who married Mehitable Woodbury of Cape
EHzabeth, Me., on the 9th of February, 1738, was born Dec. 31,
1 7 14. At the age of twentj'-one he was chosen by the town, in
1733, and for the following six years to the office of Highway
Surveyor. He was also one of the Selectmen for several terms
and held other important town offices of trust for more than
thirty years. In the Revolutionary War he served as a sergeant
in Capt. Dunn's Company, of Cape Elizabeth, in Col. Edmund
Phinney's Regiment of Massachusetts Militia, from April 24th to
July nth, 1775.

The writer copied from a paper in the hands of Mr. May-
berry of Cape Elizabeth, the following: " P'rench and Indian
War — York against Falmouth, Sept. 19, 1758. The above
named Capt. John Robinson made oath to the truth of the fore-
going account, by him, subscribed before me. Moses Dearborn,
Justice of the peace."

On the outside of the paper was written: " Capt. John Rob-
inson, Bayonet account. Filed Oct. 10, 1758. Committed
Allowed 18 lbs. — 4 shills. — 52 Bayonets. Warrents advised
Nov. II, 1758."

From the above, it would appear as if this John Robinson
served in the French and Indian War. It must have been the
John Robinson who married Mehitable Woodbury, as I find no
other record of a John Robin.son of this date.

The records of the Revolutionary servdce of John Robinson
and his son Samuel, were obtained from Mr. Zebulon Harmon,
who was pension agent for many years in Maine, and he refers
for proof to the — " Vida Rolls of service in archives of Secretary
of State's office, Boston, Volume 14, page 80."

On the eastern side of the Eastern Cemetery in Portland,
there stands a grave stone of slate, well finished and preserved,
bearing this record: — "John Robinson departed this life, Feb.
6th, 1775, aged 60 years, one month, three days."

The top of the slab is in the form of a half-circle which is
filled with masonic emblems — the square and compass, the hour
glass and the scythe. We were told in answer to the question
by the man in charge of the yard, that there was nothing like it
in the cemetery ; that he had seen many people taking an im-
pression of the record and emblems. The finding of this grave
stone, led the writer to search masonic records, where she found
that John* Robinson was one of the earlie.st masons in the state.

JOHN ROBINSON. 57

The first Masonic Charter granted to Maine, bears the date of
March 20, 1762, by Jeremy Gridley, Grand Master of Mass-
achusetts.

" Owing to the avocation, (sea-faring) and infirmities of the
Grand Master of Falmouth, Alexander Ross, Esq.," no lodge
meetings were recorded for several years. A new deputation was
granted March 13, 1769, William Tyng, Esq., Grand Master.
John Robinson appears first at the third meeting of the Lodge,
" held June 21, 1769, at his house," where it was held until
May 1770. Another notice reads "John Robinson elected a
mason May 17, 1769." The first stated meeting was held
May 8. One of the eight men elected to take degrees in Fal-
mouth Lodge, now Portland Lodge No. i, of Maine, was John
Robinson. " At a special meeting of the Lodge held November
22, 1769, it was voted that the Master and Wardens, be a
committee to invite Rev. Mr. Wiswill to preach a sermon on St.
Johns day, and that the Lodge will dine at Brother Robinson's
house, and that the Rev. Mr. Wiswill be invited to dine with
them."

John Robinson's son Joshua, a master mariner of Cape
Elizabeth, was elected a mason December 21, 1796. There is also
this record : " Samuel Robinson master mariner, I. February 19,
1800. p. March 3, 1801."

Capt. Woodbury^ Robinson, a son of Samuel'^, was a member
of "Ancient Land Mark Lodge." Also Franklin'' Robinson,
youngest son of Woodbury", and his two sons, Frank^ Woodbury
and George'^ Randall Robinson, were all members of the same
lodge, making five generations of Robinsons in the two lodges of
Portland, Me.

It will be noted that there is a discrepancy in the dates in
the record of John* Robinson's death as shown on his grave
stone, and that of his Revolutionary servdce, but as the grave
stone was undoubtedly imported, it is more than likeh' that the
mistake in the date was made in cutting the stone.

In the family of the late Franklin Robinson, there is a watch
which was once carried by John Robinson. On the back of its
cover his name is engraved with the figure of three deers trippant
in the center. Surrounding this is a collection of military and
musical instruments. This watch was in the possession of Mr,
Hosea'^ I. Robinson, a son of Sanluel^ some thirty-five years
ago. On the death of Hosea, it passed into the hands of his

JOHN ROBINSON.

younger brother George \ who lived but a few years after
Hosea's death. The watch then came into the possession of a
cousin, Mrs. Henry Fox (Mary'' C. Robinson) a daughter of
Captain Ebenezer" Robinson, who, shortly before her death,
gave the watch to Mr. Franklin^ Robinson of Portland, with the
remark that the deers trippant was the Robinson Coat of Arms.
The first owner of the watch was, without doubt, John* Robin-
son, whose name was engraved thereon; then his son, Samuel^,
who married Elizabeth Emery; and from Samuel^ to his son
Samuel", who married Harriet Ilsley and were the parents of

JiiHN ROIUXSON S WATtH.

Hosea'^, from whom the watch passed to his brother George, and
from him to his cousin, Mrs. Fox, and from her to Franklin
Robinson as above outlined. The statement regarding the coat
of arms, led the writer to take the watch to the rooms of the
Historical and Genealogical Society in Boston, to establish, if
possible, if it was the Robinson Coat of Arms. No satisfaction
whatever was obtained from tho.se in charge of the Heraldry-
Department. But from "The Robin.sons and their Kin Folk"
we find confirmation of the statement.

In gathering the data contained in this paper, the writer is
indebted to Miss Mary E., a daughter of Albion K. P. Robin.son,
whose personal assistance was valuable in the researches made.
We were always most kindly received by those intersnewed.

A SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W.
ROBINSON. OF WILKES-BARRE. PA.

By George R. Wright, Esq.

A LARGE proportion of all history is founded upon
tradition ; a larger proportion of biographical history
is constructed upon a similar foundation. The deeper
we delve in our efforts to illimine antiquity, the more
fully we realize the truth of the assertion since tra-
dition is mainly the result of memory. Nor are we
surprised to find the latter so vulnerable and unreli-
able as to engender doubt in the minds of disinter-
ested readers. Family pride, malice, forgetfulness,
are apt, unconsciously, to tincture the recollections of conscien-
tious tongues with the individuality of the narrator; and when
we are unacquainted with an author's personality we are at a
loss to discriminate between fact and tradition. Hence, realizing
the justification for the presence of doubt as to all that may be
asserted in a paper of this nature being true, I have earnestly
endeavored to eliminate every expression or statement relating
to the life and character of my subject that is not founded upon
written evidence contemporary with the life of John W. Robinson.
Moreover, I have excluded individual opinion as to his appear-
ance, his capabilities, his manhood, except in those instances
where such conclusions are corroborated by letters and documents
penned during his life time.

Neither do I deem myself infallible in the construction or
conclusion put upon, or drawn from, the data in mj^ possession.
The inherent famil}- pride existing in many of us may have caused
me to err, as others have erred, by adding a more brilliant color
to the portrait than the subject was really entitled to. But
in as strict accord with the material before me, and as truthfully
as nature permits me (a relative) to justly and faithfully sketch
the life of an honored ancestor, so shall I endeavor to give you
a word picture of one whose light of life was extinguished

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

before the majority of this assemblage first beheld the morning
sun.

John W. Robinson, late of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was born at
Norwich, Conn., April 5th, 1779, being the first son and child
of Samuel Robinson and Priscilla (Metcalf), his wife, and of the
sixth generation from William Robinson, of Dorchester, Mass.

JOHN \V. KOlilN'SO.N.

Reproduced from a portrait painted on wood about 1802-5.

He located at i\Iontro.se, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania,
about 1798, making that his place of residence. What education
he then possessed was principally acquired at and in his New
England home. An innate desire to cultivate self-reliance and
self-support (thus dispensing with the burden of paternal main-
tenance) induced him to migrate to Montrose, and, later, to
move down the Susquehanna River to the Wyoming Valle}-,

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

locating at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1804 ; where on January ist,
1805, a partnership was formed with one, John P. Arndt, in a
general merchandise business. Each partner was to furnish all
the capital he was able to invest and which was considered
necessary to the success of the enterprise. Robinson, being a
fair penman, an accurate accountant and a good book-keeper.

MRS. JOHN W. (ANN BUTLEK) ROBINSON.

From an oil paiiiling made about 1850.

was to give his entire time and attention to the industry — profits
and losses were to be equally shared and divided.

It was then the custom, in an undertaking of this nature,
to keep liquors ; and that wines in the cask were generally used
in the Wyoming Valley, and seemed to be as es.sential and neces-
sary commodities in a general merchandise business as was a spool
of thread , is not at all surprising. Under the head of ' ' notions ' '

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON,

was implied the having in hand pretty much all that was required
by the humble rustics of the community. Consequently the
articles dealt in were almost as diverse as those in larger stores
of the present time, so that (though on a very diminutive scale)
one might compare these village stores with the compartment
establishments of to-day, where a purchaser is able to procure a

STONE HOUSE AND inVELLl.N(; OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

Built about 1818, and occupied by the family until about 1S60.

Steinwa}^ piano, a pair of woolen socks, a roast of meat ; open
a bank account, have a tooth extracted or buj' an ape. Hence
it is not so wonderful that this inland place of barter and
exchange — an hundred miles from any large center of population
— managed, in some years, to transact business to an amount
exceeding ten thousand dollars a year.

At the commencement of the fourth year. of this partnership,
Mr. Robinson was married to Ann Butler (January 12th, 1808),

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

at her step-brother's (General Lord Butler) house, on Front, now
River Street, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., by the "Rev. Ard Hoyt."
Miss Butler was the second daughter and third child of Colonel
Zebulon Butler and Phebe Haight, his third wife. If I here,
very briefly, note the military career of Mrs. Robinson's father,
you will condone the digression.

Colonel Zebulon Butler took part in the campaigns of 1758 on

RESIDENCE OF \VM. U. CONYNCII AM.

Occupying the site of the old Robinson homestead.

the frontiers of Canada, Fort Edward, Lake George, Ticonderoga
and elsewhere. He was at Havana in 1762 during the long siege,
and was nearly lost in .shipwreck while going thence. When the
to sin of war was signaled from the Heights of Lexington he did
not hesitate a moment to offer his services, which were accepted,
and he was appointed Colonel in the Connecticut line, and so became
an active participant in the campaign of 1777-8-9, and, later, was
commissioned Colonel in the Second Connecticut Regiment. He
was with Washington in New Jersey, and evidently highl\- es-

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF lOHN W. ROBINSON.

teemed by him. He was the leader of that small but memorable
band of settlers, who went into the contest against a superior
number of the British and Indians, in w^hat history knows as the
' ' Massacre of Wyoming. ' ' The recollection of the barbarities
then perpetrated by the savages on the brave and sturdy broth-

JIO.MESTEAD OK THE LATE HON. HENDRICK HKAULEY WRIGHT, AND HIS WIKK,

MARY ANN BRADLEY ROBINSON.

Built of brick in 1847. The residence of George R. Wright, Esq.

erhood of white settlers is what causes his descendants, and the
residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania, to cherish his memory
and the memory of all his associates, with affection and enviable
esteem.

Probably the monotony and confinement of the mercantile
business to which Mr. Robinson was subjected induced him to
relinquish these duties and pursue more congenial, and probabh'

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

more lucrative pursuits; for in about 18 14 the partnership was
dissolved, and from then until 1818 a portion of his time was
spent at Springville (near Montrose) vSusquehanna County, Pa.,
though his home at Wilkes-Barre was retained, for there his three
sons were born. The only daughter, Mary Ann Bradley Robin-
son (the writer's mother), was born at Springville.

About the time the dis.solution of partnership with Mr.

VIEW OF KIVEK STREET (oi.D FRONT STREET) \Vi I.KES-HARKE, PA.

Lookinfj; north from South Street, showing the row of elms on the left, ex-
tending from South Street to Market Street bridge, two thousand feet.
Set out about 1858, by Hon. H. B. Wright. The wagon on the right is
standing in front of the Wright residence, and nearly opposite the late
residence of John W. Robinson.

Arndt, was effected, Mr. Robinson saw fit to insert the letter IT
in his name for reasons which are given in the following memo-
randum, noted in the "Book of Reckords, 1 746, " ' in Mr. Robin.son's
hand-writing and which I quote: "In the year 18 14 John
Robinson, who was born on the 5th day of April. 1779, introduced
the letter W in his Name to distinguish himself from other John
Robinsons in the North part of Pennsylvania, as Many incoii-

66 SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF lOHN W. ROBINSON.

veniences had occurred by waj- of letters maild, etc." That this
/f indicated Wallace and had reference to John B. Wallace, Esq.,
of Philadelphia, Pa., seems very probable from the vast business
and warm social relations existing between them.

That his profits from the late mercantile business; dealings in
real estate, the investing and collecting of large amounts of money
for others, placed him in a position of considerable affluence is
corroborated by documentory evidence in the writer's possession.
A founder of the Silver I^ake Bank at Montrose, and a director of
the same; one of the seven " Managers " of the Bridgewater and
Wilkes-Barre Turnpike Road; intrusted by the Commonwealth
with the disposition of five thousand dollars appropriated by the
State for road purpo.ses; made responsible for the transmission
of a like amount in bills from Philadelphia to Montrose; post-
master at Four Corners, Susquehanna County, Pa.; obtained a
large contract for the construction of a portion of the Wilkes-Barre
and Eastern Turnpike Road; bid for a section of the North
Branch canal, including docks and bridges; taking an important
contract for the excavating and grading of a large di\'ision of
the roadbed for the Susquehanna Railroad Company, from White
Haven to Wilkes-Barre, and throughout these years was also
a farmer of some magnitude in the raising of grain and of
cattle, principally for the market, and which latter emplo5'ment
indicates also his fondness for agricultviral pursuits. His exten-
sive real estate transactions involving the expenditure of large
sums of money, and these other undertakings in which he was
entrusted, reveal the variety and nature of his engagements as
well as suggest the activity of the man's life and career.

Later he formed a ^uasi partnership and went into the coal
business, he owning the property and preparing the coal for ship-
ment by arks, to Baltimore, Md., where the same was disposed of.

In a land speculation, Mr. Wallace, of Philadelphia, asks
if he does not desire to purchase a lot of farm land including
fifteen tracts, and containing over four thousand acres, situated
in two or three adjoining counties, which, if taken together "it
is questioned if there be a finer, or more valuable body of land
anywhere in the country."

In 1816 we find him drawing deeds, mortgages, bonds,
contracts, agreements, etc., for parties whom he represented;
Mr. Wallace, one of them, gave him a general Power of Attorney
to " buy and .sell land; loan and invest money," and with excep-

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON. 67

tional latitude delegated to him the power usually retained by
the principal; thus intimating his possession not only of business
qualifications, but a fair knowledge of the law as well.

In his habits he was always temperate, at one time being a
member of the vSons of Temperance; yet he was in no sense a
prohibitionist. In moments of great aggravation a mild profane
word would occasionally escape his lips ; in the midst of political
strife he would, now and then, be bantered into making a small
wager on election of state officers ; in the evening in company
with his more intimate friends he might be persuaded to take a
drink of whiskey if it was made a " straw color."

That he was interested in the political welfare of the country
and took a small part in municipal and national affairs we learn
from letters from prominent men of the State requesting, as one
does, information to be sent to the representative of Mr. Henry
Clay, of Kentucky; while comments upon presidential campaigns
and administrations likewise clearly reveal his abhorence of some
questionable political methods, when, with vigorous denunciation
of such innovations, drastic measures for essential reforms are
loyalh' advocated. He would have scorned (as some of his de-
scendants do) the tender of a nomination and election to the lower
House of Congress, — if the cause-way leading to that goal wound
through the quagmire and corruption of political debauchery
characteristic of so many contests of the present day. The aims
and ambitions of many of those who now clamor for the imagin-
ary honor of being a Congressional representative would be su-
premely obnoxious to him. When some of our so called statesmen
first assume their official positions their minds and hearts seem to
be swayed by four aims, viz:

ist. What can I do to adv-ance my political aspirations, and
how can I enhance my exchequer ?

2nd. How many of my constituents can I procure a pension
for; and how can I increase the amount of those already receiv-
ing a pension ?

3d. How much can I extract from the government's treasury
for the erection of a public building in my district ?

4th. Whenever a member votes for a personal or pet bill of
mine, reciprocate the kindness by supporting any private meas-
ure he may desire enacted.

The diminutive ego — the mortal I ! Inexplicable selfishness
predominates in .so many rational lives that such seem utterly

68 SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE OF JOHN W. ROBINSON.

ignorant of the fact that PubHc business may be essential ;
that many pensions are granted more on account of poHtics than
meritorious service at arms; that legaUzed pilfering from a rich
treasury for local improvement is censurable, or that the sworn
duty of a representative is to guard, promote and maintain the
interests and welfare of all the people, and not merely a few
thousand ' ' constituents ' ' of an isolated Congressional District.

And hence we gather why it was that John W. Robinson,
many years ago, significantly used the well known phrase :
" When vice prevails and imperious men bear swa}^;"
" The post of honor is a private station."
In holding such views he naturally avoided politics. These
precepts were early inculcated in the minds of his children: —
" At all times be honest."
" Exert yourself in earnest."

" Avoid duplicity; deceitfulness is bare falsehood."
" Youth should gather together against time of need."
' ' Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh thou shalt
rest."

" Those being good rules, the whole Creation will work such
as to Him seemeth best."

That brief code of civil conduct is an epitome exemplifying
his life. He died at Wilkes-Barre, December i6, 1840, leaving
a will that is duly recorded at the proper office in that
place. The inventory shows his personal estate to have been
worth $10,248.38, exclusive of real estate. His wife, Ann Butler,
died Ma}' 11, 1856, in her 69th year; his sons, Charles Miner, April
15, 1S29; John Trumbull, August 28, 1848; Mary Ann Bradley
(Robinson) Wright, September 8, 1871; and Houghton Butler,
December 29, 1892, in his 84th year. The immediate family
of John W. Robinson are now all dead, and are all buried in the
Hollenback Cemetery, at Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

This is but an abstract of a more detailed biographical sketch
of the life of John W. Robinson, and I regret to say has consumed
more time than the ten minutes alloted for its deliver^'. As
charity is a Robinson characteristic I hope to be condoned for the
transgres.sion, and sincerely regret not being able to make this
abbreviated sketch more instructive and entertaining.

SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON.

VERMONT.

By Rev. Joseph H. Robinson.

OF the special line of the Robinsons from which the
present writer descends, William Robinson "of
Watertown " is at once the progenitor and the
Melchizdek. For in all the records I can find,
he is without genealogy, having neither father
nor mother. The first notice modern history takes
of him is that he "was living in Watertown, Mass.,
in 1670." The fact of a progenitor having once
actually lived is of course a great deal, — or else how
should his descendants be able to be sure that they are not
themselves mere creatures of the imagination ? But from the point
of view of the technical genealogist, it leaves much to be desired.
It is added indeed that William lived ' ' upon a farm ' ' which
makes it probable, if not to be proven, that there is a legendary
hint in the history here that, as Aphrodite sprang directly
from the waves, so he sprang straight from the soil of Mother
Earth on that farm. Yet further to heighten the historian's
sense of mj^ster}', it is said that his farm was situate "on a
narrow neck of land," — which at once reminds us of the old
verse :

" Lo, on a narrow neck of land,
Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,
Secure ! Insensible ! "

Whether or not he felt himself thus reprehensibly " .secure,"
it is evident that he was quite "insensible" to the trouble he
was to make his descendents in their " efforts after ancestry."

We are also told that Watertown and Concord both claimed
that farm, and it may well have been the angry flood of their
contentions which formed the " narrow neck of land " on which
he stood.

70 SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT.

His first real date, as if to indicate that the real beginning
of a man's life only comes when he takes unto himself a better
half, is that of his marriage in 1667, to Elizabeth Cutter, born
1645. I adduce that date as some evidence of the probability of
his birth having occured somewhere about 1640 — if so be that he
ever was born, like ordinar}^ men.

Those of our line who claim for him some connection with
the Rev. John, the Pilgrim Pastor, as the present writer does, —
basing his belief on one of those mere family traditions which are
so wonderfully persistent, — must work back from about that
5'ear of 1640.

I have begun my sketch of his descendant, Capt. Samuel, in
this way, in the hope that some information may possibly be
forthcoming along this line.

We have the following record : — " To William and Elizabeth
was born, 6th, Samuel, in Cambridge, 1680 ; " and to his name
tradition attached the title of " Lieutenant. " He was twice
married ; and by his first wife, Sarah Manning, he had, among
other children, a son, who is the subject of this paper.

Samuel Robinson was born in Cambridge, Mass., April 4th, or
19th, 1707. The next date we know of him, as of his grandfather,
is that of his marriage in 1730 or 1732, to Mary Lenard of
Southboro, Mass. They lived for a year or two at Grafton, but
in the spring of 1735, they went to Hardwick, in the same state,
where was their residence for more than a quarter of a century.

Mr. Robinson became at once active in all the town doings,
and not least in the church life, in which he was long a deacon.
He brought up a large family of children, ten in number, seven
sons and three daughters, in the phrase of that day, " in the fear
of the Lord and the exercise of piety." And there is still pre-
served his copy of Isaac Watts, " Way of Instruction by
Catechism," along which " way," somewhat rough to the feet it
seems, every child of his must go, whatever tears and tiredness
might result; for it seems possible yet to discern on its yellow
pages those traces of many thumbs and blotches which have
always been the children's tribute to knowledge and grace.

But Samuel Robinson was militant not only in the church
and Her doctrine, but also as a member of the State militia, no
position of mere ease and emolument in those days. In the old
French War, " during the years 1755-6, he was a captain in Col.
Ruggles' regiment of Provincials, and served as such on the

SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT. 7 1

frontier;" in 1748, had been " stationed at Fort George," and
was in the battle of Lake George.

What is now the State of Vermont had then long been known
by the uncomplimentary title of "The Wilderness," — possibly for
the reason that, as an Uncle of the writer's was wont to say, " the
State of Vermont is composed of two stones to every dirt," — but
more probabl3% lo3'al Vermonters will claim, because of New York's
sheer ignorance of the subject. Through it " those first colonial
armies were often compelled to march ; and it is complete disproof
of the opprobrious title of "Wilderness," that to the wearied
soldiers it seemed so attractive, in the beauty of its scenery, and
the fertility of its soil, as that many of them planned when peace
should come, to go back thither and dwell. It was on one of his
returns from these military expeditions that Captain Robinson,
mistaking the Walloonsac river for the Hoosac, was led to what
is now Bennington, for a night's encampment.

No one who has ever stood at the summit of that hill where
stands the granite grey of Bennington's monument to her soldiers,
and has looked out over the winding valley and the vast ranges
of encircling hills, till the little summit seems like an island in
the midst of giant waves of green, can wonder that at this first
sight, the returning soldier named it, "The Promised Land,"
and determined to make it some day his home.

Parties from New^ Hampshire had already obtained a grant
of the wide country around, and named it Bennington, in honor
of Governor Benning Wenthworth of that State.

About thirteen years after the grant in 1761, Captain Robin-
son persuaded a company of his associates to join in purchasing the
rights of the original grantees ; his first party of settlers arrived
on June iSth of that year ; others came through the summer, and
himself and family in the next October. The first party is said
to have consisted of the families of Peter and Eleazer Harwood,
and Samuel and Timothy Pratt, who probably came from
Amherst, Mass., and others from neighboring towns followed
shortly.

There is reason for believing that a predominating motive
for this move lay in what has been always a prolific cause
of the courage for emigration and new settlement, religious
persecution.

The early majorities of Massachusetts, though themselves
the children of religious oppression, had not learned tolerance

72 SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT.

through suffering, and no more than their opponents in England,
could they broke Independency.

Majorities have always known how to make life hard for the
minorit}' ; and therefore the latter, nicknamed in New England,
" the Separates," began to look for some new region where they
could be at peace. Two entire societies of these Independents,
one from Massachusetts, and one from Connecticut, emigrated
together to these New Hampshire "grants" which we have
mentioned. And these families of Robinsons, Deweys, Fays,
Saffords, Wallridges and others were "the principle agency in
establishing the title under New Hampshire Law, and after-
ward of achieving the independent exist ance of Vermont as a
State."

It is clear from the records that no family pride need be
called on to make the claim of our captain's primacy in the
movement and the neighborhood in which it found a home.
He became by common consent the moderator of the first
town meeting there; and it was largely due to his power of leader^
ship and uatiring zeal that the little colony began at once to
flourish. Memories have come down of how his timely aid and firm
wisdom were felt in every house and need of the community, a
man on whom many men and women loved to defend and delighted
to honor. He was the first person to be appointed to judicial
office in the State, being made justice of the peace in 1762.
But it was in his management of the land-sales that his char-
acteristic firmness grew into sheer dogmatism; he must person-
ally be convinced, not only that the purchaser had the necessary
means and character, but was of the proper religious denomina-
tion.

It is one of the wonders of human nature that somehow perse-
cution often makes persecutors. One would imagine that they
who had themselves felt the rigors of religious tryanny, would
be the least tyrannical and most broad. It is seldom so; it was
not so with the early settlers of Vermont. Capt. Samuel was a
strict and dogmatic Congregationalist, and one of the first ques-
tions he would put to any would-be purchaser of the neighbor-
hood lands, w^as, " To what religious denomination do you
belong?" If the answer agreed with his own sectarian feeling,
well and good: the purchaser might own land among the finer
portions on the Hill. But should he prove to be a Baptist, or
Methodist, or even Episcopalian, woe be on him, his purchase

SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT. 73

must be of the poorer portions in the far valley, if indeed he were
allowed to purchase at all.

lyittle by little the " Wilderness " became a garden of beauty
and desirability: north and south the country was opening to
settlers. Suddenly New York began to realize how valuable
was this region which had been so hitherto unnoticed, and laid
claim to the right of granting all lands therein. The settlers of
Bennington with other townships were ordered to repurchase
their lands under New York ' 'grants, ' ' and at once banded together
in making steady resistance to this injustice. And when under
Governor Colden, sheriffs were sent into the territory to evict
the recalcitrant, there quickly grew up those companies of bold
and fearless men who later became the " Green Mountain Boys "
under the command of Col. Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, able
to make their resistance to force effective with force. Mean-
while a petition to the King was drawni up, signed by more than
a thousand of the grantees asking for relief against the New
York demands, and to have the jurisdiction of the territory
firmly settled upon New^ Hampshire. Such a petition would
hardly be effective at any royal court unless supported bj^ personal
effort. Samuel Robinson for the settlers from Massachusetts, and
Samuel Johnson, a then eminent lawyer, for those from Connect-
icut, were chosen to be the Commissioners and bear the petition
to England, and there lay this and all their grievance before King
George. It was no small matter, and required men of no small
calibre in those days, to embark on such a mission.

It is significant of the wide power and headship which Mr.
Robinson held among his fellow settlers that no other was ever
thought of to undertake the lead in this enterprise over seas.

On this mission they sailed from New York city on Christ-
mas Day, 1766, arriving in Falmouth on the 30th day of January
following. It is evident that the New Hampshire and Yermont
men were but poorly able to provide their Commissioners with
funds, for in his letters to his family from L,ondon, Mr. Robinson
writes of " the great expen.se of living " there and of being " in
want of money." It is evident also that he was made to feel the
weight money might have in the hands of the wealthier and better
known New Yorkers, for he writes again that, "it is hard to
make men believe the truth when there is ready money on the
other side." But the mighty determination of character which
had made him master of men in the wilderness now gave him a

74 SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT.

power which even money could not defeat; for he obtained an
injunction order from his Majesty, under date of July 24, 1767,
prohibiting the Governor of New York, "Upon pain of His
Majesty's highest displeasure from making any further grants
whatever of the lands in question, till His Majesty's further
pleasure should be known concerning the same. ' '

Feeling that his business in England was thus far enough
advanced to permit of his leaving it in the hands of his associate,
a decision doubtless based largely on the steadily depleting finan-
cial resources, both of himself and his family's at home, he began
the arrangements for his departure — with what joy one can well
imagine. He had, at his departure six months before, left at the
head of his household, a wife of determination and force of char-
acter as great as his own. She had come from one of the cultivated
homes of eastern Massachusetts; and it is said that she wept as she
thought of going so far to the West and the wilderness. But cour-
age consists, not in having no fears, but in conquering them; and
she braved the hardships of the journey and the later struggle for
existence in the new settlement as only a brave woman can who
loves a brave man. For she not only helped him with manual
labor to keep the wolf of hunger from the door at first, but many
a time after his departure abroad, she literally drove hungry and
howling packs of wolves from the roof of the house. From her
Massachusetts home she carried her high tastes with her, and
was known in all the Bennington neighborhood as one of " the
superior sort" in intellectual power and in cultured manner.
She is said to have been a great reader of history, ancient and
modern alike, and she so instilled these tastes into the minds of
her children that she lived to see her third son, Moses, Governor
of Vermont, and her youngest son, Jonathan, leading lawyer and
jurist of all that southern tier of the State.

In those days when the voyage from the one continent to the
other took more than a month, and letters were few and far be-
tween, one can imagine the anxious thoughts, each of the other,
that had constantly flown between this far-separated husband and
wife, and therefore his great pleasure of having settled the day
of his departure, all the more saddened, therefore, at the blow
that fell just as he was making ready to embark, he was
suddenly taken ill with the dread disease of small pox; and
although, as Mr. Samuel Johnson wrote Mr. Robinson's wife in
a most kindly and appreciative letter, the original of which, I

SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT. 75

believe, is still in the Robinson collection in Bennington — " No
attention, care or expense has been spared for his comfort and
healing;" he died in London on the 27th day of October, 1767, and
was interred in the old burying ground belonging to Mr. Whit-
field's Church, where he had attended public worship. "He
was sensible to the last," the letter adds in its quaint style,
" and calmly resigned to the will of Heaven." In the little old
Catechism which the children had struggled and struggled
through years before, we find that the youngest of his children
wrote when just thirteen years of age, these words: " Capt.
Samuel Robinson, His Book, Who now is dead, and gone out of
this world, in exchange for a better we hope. Written by his
son Jonathan, March 14, 1770."

The news would be long in travelling those days ; and one
can feel the shock that letter must have been to the house on the
beautiful Hill, which brought the news of its owner's death, just
as they were thinking of his longed for arrival — but a shock not
alone to that household, rather to the whole little world of the
Bennington settlement and through the near country side, a
calamity to many a friendless life of whom he had become the
kindly, mighty friend, as when in the forest a mighty oak
falls, and bears with it downward a hundred lesser trees. A
father, leader, counsellor, was dead far across the sea, and
the}' might not even view the place of his burial. Only a single
slab of white marble in the old Beimington church-yard stands
for the work and remembrance of the man to whom Vermont
owes so much. And indeed, until very lately, his grave across
the sea had been utterly forgotten of men.

A Mr. Lyons, teacher in a New England school, was travel-
ing not long since through England upon a vacation tour. One
day as he passed a church building newh^ completed, his eye was
caught by a tablet on the wall : " Whitfield Memorial Church."
Knowing something of the story of Capt. Robinson, he entered,
and soon learned that upon that spot the older church had stood.
After some search, he found the old church records well kept for
more than two hundred years. And under date of 1767, he read
the following inscription: "Samuel Robinson, buried or died Octo-
ber 29, 1767, aged 60 years. Brought from the parish of St. Mary
Le Bon." Only so much the world keeps of so many " of whom
the world was not worthy." But though its honors little crown
his life, yet its work, its human meaning for other lives, — these

76 SAMUEL ROBINSON OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT.

things abide. It is good to know the life of such a man, good to
bear his name, yet better to strive to put into one's life some-
thing of the determination and deed which were in his.

Two descendents of Judge Jonathan Robinson, his son, have
placed at the close of their chapter of his doings, the lines which
will stand for the man in his manliness and godliness together:

"To justice, freedom, duty, God,
And man forever true,
Strong to the end, a man for men,
From out the strife he passed."

• H

ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF

ROBINSON FAMILY GENEALOGICAL

AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

LIFE MEMBERS.

Bennett, William Robinson S03 Hioadway, Chelsea, Mass.

Larned, Charles 1025 Tremont Building, Boston, Mass.

Richards, Mrs. Helen R Maiden, Mass.

Robinson, Albeit O .Sanbornville, N. H.

Robinson, Hon. David I Gloucester, Mass.

Robinson, Hon. Frank Hurd Hornes%ille, N. Y.

Robinson, Geo. W Elburn, 111.

Robinson, H. S. 60 State St., Boston, Ma.ss.

Robinson, John Cutler Hampton, Va.

Robinson, Miss Maria L 178 Main St., Orange, N. J.

Robinson, Miss Phebe A iq Shores St., Taunton, Mass.

Robinson, Mrs. R. R. (Jane A. Rogers) Maiden, Mass.

Robinson, Sylvanus Smith Metamora, 111.

Spaulding, Edward 40 Purchase St., Boston, Mass.

Wright, George R., Esq 73 Coal Exchange, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

MEMBERS.

Allen, Miss Eleanor West Tisbury, Mass.

Armstrong, Mrs. Frances Morgan Hampton, Va.

Austin, Mrs. C. Downer (Joanna) New York, N. Y.

Bennett, Mrs. Charlotte, Payson Robinson. .. .S03 Broadway, Chelsea, Mass.

Bowie, Mrs. Mary Robinson Uniontown, Pa.

By ram, Joseph Robinson g-ii Essex St., Boston, Mass.

Brainerd, Miss Harriett E 27 Messenger St., St. Albans, Vt.

Chapman, Mrs. James Edwin Evanston, Wyo.

Clark, Mrs. Evelina D 125 Newton St., Marlboro, Mass.

Clarke, Mrs. Mary R 9 St. James Ave., Boston, Mass.

Creighton, Dr. Sarah Robinson 28 West 59th St., New York, N. Y.

Cutts, Mrs. R. A 19 Walden St., Lynn, Mass.

Dean, Mrs. Sarah Daggett 33 Dean St., Attlcboro, Mass.

Dudley, Mrs. Hattie L 119 Antrim St., Cambridge, Mass.

Eastman, Edson C Concord, N. H.

Eastman, Mrs. Edson C. (Mary L. Whittemore) " "

Ford, Mrs. Ella (Everson) So. Hanson, Mass.

Fuller, Mrs. A. B. (Emma L.) 13 Hilliard St., Cambridge, Mass.

Graham, Mrs. Maranda E. (Robinson) Orange City, Fhi.

Hamilton, Mrs. Amanda Wilmarth McCreary,

400 So. Highland Ave., Pittsburg, Pa.

Holbrook, Levi New York Citv, N. Y.

■> i }

LofC

78 MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATION.

Kimball, John E Oxford, Mass.

Lewis, Mrs. F. W. (Celia L.) 28 Albion St., Melrose Highlands, Mass.

McLaren, Mrs. S. R 20 Humboldt Ave., Providence, R. L

Miller, Miss FForence Andyman 64 Orchard St., No. Cambridge, Mass.

Miller, Mrs. Edwin C. (Ida Farr) 18 Lawrence St., Wakefield, Mass.

Monk, Mrs. Lillian, Box 727, Nevada, hi.

Moore, Leonard Dunham Box 33, Pittsburg, Pa.

Nevins, Mrs. Anna Josepha Shiverick Edgartown, Mass.

Norris, James L., Jr 331 C. St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

Packard, Mrs. Lewis S. (Abbie W.) Mansfield, Mass.

Porter, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Robinson Cliftondale, Mass.

Randolph, Mrs. Geo. F. (Annie F.) 1013 No. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.

Raymond, Daniel V 55 Liberty St., New York, N. Y.

Robinson, Rev. A. B Westfield, N. J.

Robinson, Mrs. Albert O. (Clara E.) Sanbornville, N. H.

Robinson, Mrs. Anna B 300 Adams St., Dorchester, Mass.

Robinson, Benjamin S Greenfield Center, N. Y.

Robinson, Mrs. Calvin L. (Elizabeth S.) 420 Post St., Jacksonville, Fla.

Robinson, Carel 19 Congress St., Boston, Mass.

Robinson, Charles Albert Auburn, Me.

Robinson, Charles Floyd 105 Washington St., Somerville, Mass.

Robinson, Charles H 3310 Tulare St., Fresno, Cal.

Robinson, Charles Snelling Denver, Colo.

Robinson, Doane Aberdeen, So. Dak.

Robinson, Dr. Ebenezer T Orange City, Fla.

Robinson, Edward Arthur 6 Rowe St., Auburndale, Mass.

Robinson, Miss Emily M 424 Washington St., Brookline, Mass.

Robinson, Erastus Corning Alexandria, Ind.

Robinson, Eugene M 22 Fifth Ave., Chicago, 111.

Robinson, Frank 88 Cross St., Somerville, Mass.

Robinson, Frank Everett 125 Langley Ave., Detroit, Mich.

Robinson, Rev. Fred. Arthur Milford, Mass\

Robinson, Dr. Frederick Converse Uniontown, Pa.

Robinson, G. C 104 Merrimack St., Haverhill, Mass.

Robinson, George Champlin Wakefield, R. L

Robinson, George Champlin, Jr 170 Hicks St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Robinson, George E. Palmer Block, Oconomonoc, Wis.

Robinson, George H 301 Reed St., Moberly, Mo.

Robinson, Miss Hal lie Ahibel Geneseo, 111.

Robinson, Henry H Rockford, 111.

Robinson, Henry P Guilford, Conn.

Robinson, Herbert Jester 374 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Robinson, Increase Plymouth, Mass.

Robinson, Miss Isabella Howe 177 Adams, St., Dorchester, Mass.

Robinson, Dr. James Arthur 8 Portland St., Morrisville, Vt.

Robinson, Dr. J.Franklin 15 Pickering Bldg., Manchester, N. H.

Robinson, James Lawrence 17 Haverhill St., Brockton, Mass.

Robinson. John Cheney Jamaica, Vt.

Robinson, Joseph M 13 Charles St., Portland, Me.

Robinson, Lewis W Martinsburg, W. Va.

MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATION. 79

Robinson, Miss Myitie E Mt. Vernon, Me. ^

Robinson. Nathaniel Emmons Parke Ave., Brightwood, ^. C.tU.

Robinson, Nathan Winthrop 242 Savin Hill, Dorchester, Mass.

Robinson, Neil Charleston, W. Va.

Robinson, Mrs. N ina Beals Waterbury, Vt.

Robinson, Noah Otis 88 Cross St., Somerville, Mass.

Robinson, Philip Eugene 194 Clinton St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Robinson, Dr. R. F Eagan, So. Dak.

Robinson, Reuben T 54 Fairfield St,, North Cambridge, Mass.

Robinson, Miss Sarah 2904 Morgan St., St. Louis, Mo.

Robinson, Theo. Winthrop 4840 Ellis Ave., Chicago, 111.

Robinson, Walter Augustin 34 Jason St., Arlington, Mass.

Robinson, Walter Billings 17 Beacon St., Natick, Mass.

Robinson, Walter Bruce P. O. Bldg., Elmira, N. Y.

Robinson, William 9 St. James Ave., Boston, Mass.

Robinson, William A Nashua, N. H.

Robinson, W. H Eastern Township Bank, Granby, P. O., Canada

Robinson, William Morse 300 Adams St., Dorchester, Mass.

Rose, Miss Aline M Westbury Station, Long Island, N. Y.

Shippee, Mrs. Elizabeth E. R 24 Spring St., Pawtucket, R. I.

Shippee. Harold Robinson 24 Spring St., Pawtucket, R. I.

Smith, Mrs. Elizabeth R 93 Church St., No. Adams, Mass.

Starrett, Mrs. Ethelinda Robinson 315 Castro .St., San Francisco, Cal.

-Stearns, Mrs. Urania Robinson. .63 Grover Ave., Winthrop Highlands, Mass.

Studley, Mrs. Mary Z 283 Lamartine St., Jamaica Plains, Mass.

Tingley, Raymon M Herrick Centre, Pa.

Wales, Mrs. Abijah (Alice M.) 61 County St., Attleboro, Mass.

Wardner, Mrs. Fannie Lewis 33 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, N. Y.

MEMBERS

Who have changed their addresses since the meeting of the Association at
Gloucester, Mass., in 1902.

Austin, C. Downer 141 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Briggs, Mrs. Martha A. Robinson Bo.\ 856, Providence, R. I.

Bronson, Mrs. E. P Chicago. 111.

Butler, Mrs. Ellen Robinson Attleboro, Mass., R.F.D.

Cogswell, Mrs. Wm 7 Pleasant St., Medford, Mass.

Gordon, Mrs. Lillian S. R Leland Hotel, Emporia, Kas.

Hubbard, Mrs. Chas. D Wyncote, Pa.

Kirk, Mrs. J. F 94 State St., New Bedford, Mass.

Little, Mrs. G. Elliotte 46 West loth St., New York, N. Y.

MacLachlan, Mrs. Harriett R 23 1 Icnry St., Binghamton, N. Y.

Penniman, George W Brockton. Mass.

Pierce, Mrs. H. F Oronoque, Norton Co., Kas.

Porr, Mrs. Janttte H Corinna, Me., Route i.

Potter, Miss Emma 70? Madison St., Syracuse, N. Y.

Robinson, Prof. Benj. L 3 Clement Circle, Cambridge, Mass.

Robinson, Dr. J. Blake 75 Wilbert St., Portsmouth, N. H.

Robinson, Rev. Joseph H 47 Barker Terrace, White Plains, N. Y.

8o MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATION.

Robinson, Charles Edson (Life Member). . 123 Richmond St., Plainfield, N. J.
Robinson, Charles Kendall (Life Member)

374 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Robinson Miss Myra S 24 Spring St., Pavvtucket, R. I.

Sanford, Mrs. Carleton F. (Marie D. Robinson)

35 Harrison St., Taunton, Mass.
Storms, Mrs. Lucretia R 119 Mill St., New Bedford, Mass.

DEATHS.

Atherton, Mrs. Sarah Robinson (Honorary Member). . . .Peru, Huron Co., O.

Dean, James H., Esq. (Vice-President) Taunton, Mass.

Dorrs, Miss Amanda Cazenovia, N, Y.

Fuller, Mrs. Mar\' R Cambridgeport, Mass.

Norton, Mrs. Mary J Woods Hole, Mass.

Robinson, Adrian G Hanford, Cat.

Robinson, Capt. Charles A Germantown, Pa.

Robinson, Capt. Charles T. (Vice-President) Tauton, Mass.

Robinson, Franklin, Esq. (Vice-President) Portland, Me.

Robinson, George A West Mansfield, Mass.

Robinson, Samuel Stillman Pontiac, Mich.

SPECIAL NOTICE.

; ^

It is earnestly desired, by the officers of this Association, that every
member will contribute towards a special fund, set apart for the purpose of
research in the records of England for Robinson ancestry. The fund will be
spent judiciously with the belief that valualjle information may be disclosed
greatly to the advantage of all the members.

With few exceptions the line connecting the early Robinson emigrants to
America with the mother country, is in absolute obscurity ; even the birth
place and parentage of that most noted man who stands in history as one of
the founders of this great nation, the Rev. John Robinson of Leyden, is
utterly unknown. Why not then make a record for The Robinson Family
Genealogical and Historical Association that will be worthy of record, and
make clear what is locked up beyond the sea, which all are so anxious to
know ?

Contributions may be sent to the Secretary, Miss A. A. Robirison, North
Raynham, Mass.

The Secretary also has for sale a few copies, left over, of the Robinson
Coal of .Arms in colors, suitalile for framing. Price, $1.00 each.

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