Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson (27 September 1735 – 9 June 1790) was an English Baptist scholar, author and preacher.

He published several books, including a work on baptism, History of Baptism and Baptists, appearing the year of his death.

Robinson's uncle, a farmer, had sponsored Robinson's attendance at a school at Scarning, near Dereham, Norfolk, under Rev. Joseph Brett. This is summarised by Alexander Gordon, who wrote, "The preaching of Whitefield drew him to the Calvinistic Methodists; he dates his dedication to a religious life from 24 May 1752, his complete conversion from 10 Dec[ember] 1755."

In addition to his success in his preaching ministry, Robinson continued in his research and writing, the accumulation of which would come to several volumes once collected, Interest in various works led to invitations by various organisations to provide resources for his visits and research, offers which included privileges at the Cambridge University Library, an offer of facilities at the British Museum so that he could come to London to collect material, etc.

In their Cambridge years, 1759 and onward, they first lived four miles from Cambridge, at Fulbourn, then in "a cottage at Hauxton" about the same distance from the Chapel, and finally, after more than a decade, to Chesterton (a mile or more from the Chapel, in June 1773). There he also "farmed a piece of land", later buying and rebuilding a house there for the family (1775),

It was during his working visit to Priestley in Birmingham, described above, that Robinson died. He was found dead in his bed on the morning of 9 June 1790.

In 1882 the Dissenters' Burial Ground was cleared for railway expansion and redevelopment in central Birmingham. The remains of Robert Robinson and others buried there were relocated to Witton Cemetery and marked by an obelisk.

Views Religious

While strongly affiliated with the Baptist religious movement of the time, Robinson also wrote for and was read throughout the growing Unitarian movement in England during his life. Political Gordon, writing in 1897 for the British National Dictionary of Biography, writes that Robinson wasn politics a strong liberal, and an early advocate for the emancipation of the slave... [and that he] showed his theological liberalism by the part he took, in 1772, in promoting the relaxation of the statutory subscription exacted from tolerated dissenters. An examination of Mr. Robinson of Cambridge's Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ (1785)

Hymns Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (1758).