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Author: Robinson, Morris

Biography:

ROBINSON, Morris (1757-1829: ODNB)

Born on 14 July 1757, the poet was baptized on 9 Aug. at St Andrew, Holborn, the eldest son of Morris Robinson, an attorney of the Six Clerks in Chancery, and his wife, Jane, a daughter of John Greenland of Lovelace, Kent. On 30 Nov. 1800, in succession to his uncle Matthew Robinson, he became third Lord Rokeby of Armagh and fifth Baron Rokeby in Yorkshire. Radagunda Roberts (q.v.) was a member of the bluestocking circle of his maternal aunt, Elizabeth Greenland, the wife of Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich. The poet was educated at Trintiy Hall, Cambridge, 1775 to 1777, and, from 1775, at Lincoln’s Inn. Commencing in 1790, he was MP for Boroughbridge, to 1796. He wrote his never performed John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. An Historic Play at his Yorkshire estate, Edgley Hall. Published in 1820, its printing was arranged by Thomas Fall, a bookseller and stationer at nearby Leyburn, who also arranged its sale (at two shillings) by booksellers in London, York, Durham, Stockton, and Richmond. The poet died on 19 Apr. 1829 (not 10 May as in GM) in his house, Littleburn (now a Grade II listed building), at Thoralby, Yorkshire. He expired in the arms of his friend and live-in companion, portrait artist Lawson Dunn. Dunn and members of his family were primary beneficiaries in the poet’s will. Elizabeth Dunn, Lawson Dunn’s daughter, donated to St Andrew’s church a stained-glass window dedicated to Robinson’s memory. To his housekeeper, spinster Mary Peacock, the poet left £1500, some real estate, and a £100 annuity. Though he died unmarried, he had a son by Rosamond Waite (d 1799), Simon Wetham Kyrobe Robinson, baptized 19 Jan. 1792 at St Mary’s church, Marylebone, London. A fellow-commoner of Bene’t College (Corpus Christi), Cambridge, his son was buried on 1 Sept. 1811 at Aldborough, North Yorkshire. (ancestry.com 22 Mar. 2024; ODNB under Morris, Matthew Robinson-, second Baron Rokeby 22 Mar. 2024; History of Parliament online 20 Mar. 2024; National Archives IR 26/424/604 abstract of will of Rosamond Waite, spinster of Charlotte Street, Portland Place; PROB 11/1757; Lady’s Magazine 30 [1799], 336; Literary Panorama 10 [1811], col. 757; E. Baines, History, Directory & Gazetteer of the County of York [1823], 2:564; St James’s Chronicle, 23 Apr. 1829; GM 27 [1829], 467) JC

 

Other Names:

  • Morris Robinson-Morris Robinson, Baron Rokeby
 

Books written (2):

London: [no publisher: printed by Bulmer], 1806
Leyburn/ London/ York/ Durham/ Stockton/ Richmond: T. Fall/ Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown/ J. Wolstenholme/ G. Andrews/ T. Jennett/ T. Bowman, 1820