Tenuous Connections

Following all these distinguished Robinson mariners back down through the centuries is all  very interesting in its own right, but as far as our own branch of the Robinson family is concerned, not very informative, beyond carrying a tantalizing hint that the extended family had been seafarers for generations back. 

The only remaining possibility that might provide a clue comes through the father of Mark Robinson senior, Thomas Robinson, who married Uphenia Maffam in York in 1715. Apart from Mark, they had a second son called William, born in 1723, also in York. Nothing is known of this William, and it is thus conceivable that this might just be the line from which the Robinson mariners of Farmer Street, Shadwell emerged.

Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham

One can’t help but feel though that this is picking at genealogical straws, and it is all far too speculative to justify any additions to the family tree, or to go further back and explore the relationships between these Robinsons of York and the branch of Admiral Tancred Robinson, who was also Lord Mayor of York, and whom it has been suggested, adopted the older Mark Robinson and saw him on his way into a naval career.
Tancred’s brother, incidentally, Thomas Robinson was to become the First Baron Grantham, and their father, Sir William Robinson, was the First Baronet of Newby, and also MP for York.  The Second Baron Grantham, Thomas Robinson (1738-1786), meanwhile became Foreign Secretary, and his third son, Frederick John Robinson (1782-1859), as Viscount Goderich briefly served as Prime-Minister in 1827 and 1828. 

Whatever the connections may or may not have been, the Morning Advertiser of 1794, like The Times Newspaper of 1805, was certainly held onto by the family for a reason, and that reason might certainly be that both newspapers mentioned distant cousins who by now were moving in highly distinguished circles. And as with Maria West and her own surprisingly elevated origins in County Down, there may just have been more of a pedigree to Charles John Robinson and his family than meets the eye. The existence of the newspapers, for one thing, demonstrates literacy in the family, and after all the position of Master Mariner itself required an all round set of skills in navigation and maritime management upon which lives and merchandise fully depended.