was appointed perpetual curate of Great Yarmouth in 1609, was then aged 34, and was a native of Saxlingham. A serious obstacle to the endeavour to identify this Yarmouth curate with the pastor of the pilgrim fathers is raised by the appearance of the year 1609 in this entry. Neale, the New England historian, asserts, in his ‘History of the Puritans,’ that the pastor of the pilgrim fathers was ‘beneficed about Yarmouth,’ and the Yarmouth corporation records of 1608 mention ‘Mr. Robinson the pastor’ (John Browne, Congregationalism in Norfolk and Suffolk). But in 1608 the pastor left England, and he is not known to have returned.
It is very probable that Robinson the pastor studied at Cambridge during the last decade of the sixteenth century, and perhaps he came under the personal influence of William Perkins [q. v.] In early life he held ‘cure and charge’ of souls in Norwich, and ‘certeyn citizens were excommunicated for resorting vnto and praying with’ him (Ainsworth, Counter-poyson, 1608 p. 246, 1642 p. 145). Robinson himself mentions his residence at Norwich in his ‘People's Plea’ (1618), dedicated to his ‘Christian friends in Norwich and thereabouts.’ Hall confidently asserts (Common Apologie, p. 145) that Robinson's separation from the established church was due to his failing to obtain ‘the mastershippe of the hospitall at Norwich, or a lease from that citie’ (presumably of a place of worship). Later writers speak of him as having held a Norfolk benefice—perhaps the Yarmouth curacy already noticed—and as having been suspended. About 1607 Robinson, according to a guess of Hunter, seems to have joined the ‘gathered church’ meeting at Scrooby Manor, Nottinghamshire, the residence of William Brewster [q. v.], of which Richard Clifton [q. v.] was pastor. Clifton himself held a living, but there are other instances of beneficed clergy who at the same time were members of congregational churches. Robinson, as Hall observes, had been influenced by John Smyth, to whom the Scrooby church owed its origin; but he did not follow Smyth's later views. In 1606 Smyth emigrated to Amsterdam, where he became an Arminian and a baptist. In August 1608 Clifton also emigrated to Amsterdam with some of the Scrooby congregation; later in the year Robinson followed with others, who had made several ineffectual attempts to obtain a passage.
At Amsterdam the emigrants joined the separatist church which had Francis Johnson (1562–1618) [q. v.] as its pastor, and Ainsworth as its teacher. The prospect of dissensions on church government which broke out in this church in the following year may have determined Robinson's contingent not to settle at Amsterdam. Many of them were weavers, and at Leyden there was employment for cloth-weavers. On 12 Feb. 1609 they obtained permission from the authorities at Leyden, and removed thither by 1 May. Robinson was publicly ordained as their pastor; Brewster was a ruling elder; the community numbered about one hundred, and increased to three hundred; their form of church government was congregational.
At Leyden, which had not the trading advantages of a port, their life was hard. They maintained an excellent character, the authorities contrasting their diligence, honesty, and peaceableness with the behaviour of the Walloons. Bradford says that more ‘public favour’ would have been shown them but for fear of ‘giving offence to the state of England.’ There is no truth in the statement, gathered by Prince from old people at Leyden in 1714, that one of the city churches was granted for their worship. In 1610 Henry Jacob (1563–1624) [q. v.] went from Middelburg to Leyden to consult Robinson on matters of church government. In January 1611 Robinson and three others bought, for eight thousand guilders, a house ‘by the belfry;’ the conveyance is dated 5 May 1611, possession was obtained on 1 May 1612 (there had evidently been difficulty in raising the purchase money), and the building was converted into a dwelling and meeting-house. In the rear twenty-one cottages were erected for poorer emigrants.
Some time before 1612 Robinson had corresponded, about terms of communion, with William Ames (1576–1633) [q. v.], then at The Hague. These ‘private letters’ were communicated by Ames to ‘The Prophane Schisme of the Brownists,’ 1612, pp. 47 seq., a composite work, fathered by Christopher Lawne and three others; Ames and Robert Parker (1564?–1614) [q. v.] also contributed to it. George Hornius (Hist. Eccles. 1665, p. 232) thinks Ames and Parker modified Robinson's views; this does not appear to have been the case. There may be some basis of fact for the story of a three days' disputation at Leyden in 1613 between Robinson and Episcopius; but that it was undertaken by Robinson, at the request of Polyander (Jan Kerckhoven) and the city ministers (Bradford), or held in the university (Winslow), seems improbable. The university records are silent about it, and at Leyden the party of Episcopius was in the ascendant. On 5 Sept. 1615 Robinson was admitted a member of the university, by permission of the magistrates, as a student of
