Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/350

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PROMINENT PERSONS


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and was given command at the latter place. In 1777 he was commissioned by Gov. Pat- rick Henry, of Virginia, as colonel and com- mandant of the Illinois country, and served two years, organizing its civil government. Col. Todd went to Virginia in 1779, and was next year a member of the legislature, where he procured land-grants for public schools, and introduced a bill for negro emancipation. He returned to Kentucky, and while there, as senior colonel, com- manded the forces against the Indians in the battle of the Blue Licks, where he was killed, .August 19, 1782. Levi, brother of John, was a lieutenant under George Rogers Clark in the expedition of 1778. and one of ih(. few survivors of the Blue Licks; Levi's son. Robert S.. was the father of Mrs. Ab- raham Lincoln.

Taylor, John, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1752. He became an itinerant missionary of the Baptist church in western \'irginia at the age of twenty, and in 1783 removed to Kentucky. He lived at Gear Creek, and was pastor of the church, till V95, when he settled in Boone county. He preached and took part in revival- while clearing and cultivating land, and in his last years, though he declined the pastoral re- lation, he officiated in a church that he had assisted in organizing at Forks of Elkhcrn. He published an account of his religious labors and of the churches that he had aided in founding, under the title of "A History of Ten Baptist Missions.'* He dic:d in Forks of Elkhorn, Franklin countv, Kentuckv, in

Kobinson, Robert, son of John and Fran- ces Robinson, of Middlesex countv, Vir-


ginia, was born April 29, 1758. and with hi.«  tutor. Francis Hargreaves, ran away irom home and joined the English army in 1778, aid was lieutenant in the King's "Lo)a. Americans." After the war, he settle! in Nova Scotia and married Dorothea Budd.of Digby, in that province, and died about 1814. His grandson, Thomas Robinson, of St. Johns, New Brunswick, was president of the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1880.

Robinson, Christopher, born in W'estmorc- land county. Virginia, in 1760, a desceiuiant of Christopher Robinson (1645-92), elder brother of Ur. John Robinson, bishop of Bristol and London, who came to .\merica in 1660 and was secretary of the colony of Virginia. He was educated at William and Mj-y College, and early in the revolution went to New York, where he received a commission in the Loyal American regin.enl under his relative, Beverley Robinson. He served in the south, was wounded, and ?fter the war went to Nova Scotia and received a grant of land. He later removed to Upper Canada. He was father of Sir John Bev- erley Robinson, baronet. K. C. B., chief jus- tice of Upper Canada. He died in York (now Toronto), Upper Canada, in 1798.

Trotter, George, born in \'irginia, in 177Q. son of Lieut.-Col. James Trotter, a soldier in the revolution. He entered the army at the beginning of the second war with Great Britain, as a captain in a volunteer company of dragoons, was wounded in action with the Indians under Col. John B. Campbell, on December 18 of that year: became lieu- tenant-colonel of Kentucky volunteers in 18 13: as brigadier-general he led a brigade


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