Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robinson, Hastings
ROBINSON, HASTINGS (1792–1866), divine, eldest son of R. G. Robinson of Lichfield, by his wife Mary, daughter of Robert Thorp of Buxton, Derbyshire, was born at Lichfield in 1792. He went to Rugby in 1806, and proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1815, M.A. in 1818, and D.D. in 1836. He was a fellow and assistant-tutor from 1816 to 1827, when he was appointed curate to Charles Simeon [q. v.] He stood unsuccessfully for the regius professorship of Greek at Cambridge, and was Cambridge examiner at Rugby, where he founded a theological prize.
On 26 Oct. 1827 he was appointed by his college to the living of Great Warley, near Brentwood, Essex. He was collated to an honorary canonry in Rochester Cathedral 11 March 1862.
Robinson was an earnest evangelical churchman (cf. his Church Reform on Christian Principles, London, 1833). In 1837 he drew up and presented two memorials to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (London, 1837, 8vo), protesting against certain publications as contrary to the work of the Reformation. He died at Great Warley on 18 May 1866, and was buried there. He married, in 1828, Margaret Ann, daughter of Joseph Clay of Burton-on-Trent, who predeceased him. Robinson, who was elected F.S.A. on 20 May 1824, achieved some excellent literary work. He edited, with notes, the ‘Electra’ of Euripides, Cambridge, 1822, 8vo; ‘Acta Apostolorum variorum notis tum dictionem tum materiam illustrantibus,’ Cambridge, 1824, 8vo (2nd edit. 1839); and Archbishop Ussher's ‘Body of Divinity,’ London, 1841, 8vo. For the Parker Society he prepared ‘The Zurich Letters, being the Correspondence of English Bishops and others with the Swiss Reformers during the Reign of Elizabeth,’ translated and edited, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1842 and 1845, 8vo, as well as ‘Original Letters relative to the English Reformation, also from the Archives of Zurich,’ 2 vols., Cambridge, 1846 and 1847.
[Luard's Graduati Cantabr.; Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus, p. 152; Note from A. A. Arnold, esq., chapter clerk, Rochester; Darling's Cyclopædia, ii. 2570; Martin's Handbook to Contemp. Biogr. p. 221; Rugby School Register, i. 94; Chelmsford Chronicle, 25 May 1866; Ipswich Journal, 26 May 1866; Gent. Mag. July 1866, p. 114; Lists of the Society of Antiquaries; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; Simms's Bibl. Staffordiensis.]