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.]
ROBINSON, HENRY (1553?–1616), bishop of Carlisle, a native of Carlisle, was born there probably in 1553 (mon. inscript. in The Hist. and Antiquities of Carlisle, p. 180). He became a tabarder of Queen's College, Oxford, 17 June 1572, and graduated B.A. 12 July 1572, M.A. 20 June 1575, B.D. 10 July 1582, and D.D. 6 July 1590. In 1575 he became fellow of Queen's, and principal of St. Edmund Hall on 9 May 1576 (Gutch; Wood, Hist. and Antiq. of Oxford, p. 664; Foster, Alumni Oxon.; Clark, Oxford Register). In 1580 he was rector of Fairstead in Essex (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) On 5 May 1581 he was elected provost of Queen's, when he resigned the principalship of St. Edmund Hall. He was a self-denying and constitutional provost, restoring to the college certain sources of revenue which previous provosts had converted to their own uses, and the appointment of the chaplains, which previous provosts had usurped. With the assistance of Sir Francis Walsingham, he in 1582 obtained a license in mortmain and indemnity for the college. He also gave to it 300l. for the use of poor young men, besides plate and books. In 1585 he, along with the fellows, preferred a bill in parliament for confirmation of the college charter (State Papers, Dom., Eliz. clxxvi. 17, 28 Jan. 1585). Seven years later, in 1592, on the occasion of the queen's visit to Oxford, he was one of those appointed to see the streets well ordered (Clark, Oxford Register, i. 230). He also served as chaplain to Grindal, who left him the advowson of a prebend in Lichfield or St. Davids (Strype, Grindal, p. 426; Hist. and Antiq. of Carlisle, ubi supra).
Robinson was elected bishop of Carlisle on 27 May 1598, confirmed 22 July, and consecrated the next day. In 1599 he was appointed one of the commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and subsequently numerous references to him occur in the state papers, as arresting or conferring with catholics in the north of England (see State Papers, Eliz. cclxxiii. 56, 26 Dec. 1599). On 1 Nov. 1601 he was entered a member of Gray's Inn, and two years later took part in the Hampton Court conference (Foster, Registers of Gray's Inn; Barlow, Summe and Substance of the Conference). In 1607 he appears as one of the border commissioners (State Papers, James I, xxvi. 18, 20 Jan. 1607). He preached a sermon on 1 Cor. x. 3 at Greystoke church 13 Aug. 1609, and from that year till his death held the rectory of that parish ‘in commendam’ (Transactions of Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiq. Soc. i. 338, 339). In 1613 he filed a bill in the exchequer court against George Denton of Cardew Hall for refusing all suit to his lordship's courts and mills. By obtaining a decree in his own favour he secured the rights of the see against
