ROBINS, BENJAMIN (1707–1751), English man of science and engineer, was born at Bath in 1707. His parents were Quakers in poor circumstances, and gave him very little education. Having come to London by the advice of Dr Henry Pemberton (1694–1771), who had recognized his talents, he for a time maintained himself by teaching mathematics, but soon devoted himself to engineering and the study of fortification. In particular he carried out an extensive series of experiments in gunnery, embodying his results in his famous treatise on New Principles in Gunnery (1742), which contains a. description of his ballistic pendulum (see Chronograph). Robins also made a number of important experiments on the resistance of the air to the motion of projectiles, and on the force of gunpowder, with computation of the velocities thereby communicated to projectiles. He compared the results of his theory with experimental determinations of the ranges of mortars and cannon, and gave practical maxims for the management of artillery. He also made observations on the flight of rockets, and wrote on the advantages of rifled barrels. His work on gunnery was translated into German by L. Euler, who added to it a critical commentary of his own. Of less interest nowadays are Robins’s more purely mathematical writings, such as his Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton’s Methods of Fluxions and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios (1735), “A Demonstration of the Eleventh Proposition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Treatise of Quadratures” (Phil. Trans., 1727), and similar works. Besides his scientific labours Robins took an active part in politics. He wrote pamphlets in support of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, and was secretary of a committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the conduct of that minister. He also wrote a preface to the Report on the Proceedings of the Board of General Officers on their Examination into the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, in which he gave an apology for the battle of Prestonpans. In 1749 he was appointed engineer-general to the East India Company, and went out to superintend the reconstruction of their forts; but his health soon failed, and he died at Fort St David on the 29th of July 1751.
His works were published in two volumes in 1761.
ROBINSON, EDWARD (1794–1863), American Biblical scholar, was born in Southington, Connecticut, on the 10th of April 1794, the son of William Robinson (1754–1825), minister of the Congregational Church of Southington. He graduated in 1816 at Hamilton College. In 1821 he came under the influence and teaching of Moses Stuart, the second edition of whose Hebrew Grammar he helped to prepare for the press in 1823, and through whom he was appointed in the same year instructor in Hebrew in Andover Seminary. With Stuart he translated in 1825 the first edition of Winer’s Grammar of New Testament Greek; and alone he translated Wahl’s Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti (1825). In 1826–30 he studied in Germany, especially at Halle, under Gesenius, Tholuck and Rödiger, and at Berlin, under Neander, He was professor (extraordinary) of sacred literature and librarian at Andover in 1830–33, resigning because of dangerous epileptic attacks; and in 1831–35 he edited the Biblical Repository, which he founded and carried on very largely by his own contributions, assisted somewhat by his young German wife, Theresa Albertina Luise (1797–1869), the daughter of Professor Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob of Halle, a linguist of considerable ability, and a writer (in her early years under the pseudonym “Talvi”) of essays and stories. In 1837 he accepted the professorship of Biblical literature in Union Theological Seminary, and left America for three years of study in Palestine and Germany, the fruit of which, his Biblical Researches, published in 1841, brought him the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1842. A second volume of Researches appeared in 1856. His plans to sum up his important topographical studies in a work on Biblical geography were cut short by cataract in 1861 and by his death in New York City on the 27th of January 1863. A great Biblical scholar and exegete, Robinson must be considered the pioneer and father of Biblical geography—his Biblical Researches, supplemented by the Physical Geography of the Holy Land (1865), were based on careful personal exploration and tempered by a thoroughly critical spirit, which was possibly at times too sceptical of local tradition. Of scarcely less value in their day were his Greek Harmony of the Gospels (1845 and often) and his Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament (1836, revised 1847 and 1850). He established in 1843 and edited for some years the Bibliotheca Sacra (in which the Biblical Repository was merged-in 1852), for which he wrote until 1855.
See Henry B. Smith and Roswell D. Hitchcock, The Life, Writings and Character of Edward Robinson (New York, 1863); a biography of Mrs Robinson was published, with a collection of her stories, in Leipzig, in 1874.
ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB (1777–1867), English journalist and diarist, the son of a tanner, was born at Bury St Edmunds on the 13th of March 1775. In 1796 he entered the office of a solicitor in London, but two years later, having inherited a sum of money sufficient to give him a small yearly income, he started in 1800 upon a tour on the Continent, travelling chiefly in Germany and Bohemia. In 1802 he became a student at the university of Jena, where he remained until his return to England in 1805. After vain endeavours to obtain a post in the diplomatic service, he was appointed foreign correspondent for The Times at Altona. His letters, “From the Banks of the Elbe,” were published in this newspaper during 1807, and on his return he became its foreign editor. In 1808 at the outbreak of the Peninsular War he was sent out as special war correspondent-an innovation in English journalism—for The Times to Spain. There he witnessed Sir John Moore’s retreat at Corunna. After his return to England he read for the bar at the Middle Temple, and from 1813 to 1828 he practised as a barrister, retiring as soon as he had acquired a modest competence. He is remembered chiefly as the friend of Lamb, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Southey. He was a great conversationalist, and his breakfast parties rivalled those of Samuel Rogers. He died in London on the 5th of February 1867.
His Diary of 35 volumes, his Journals of 30 volumes, and his Letters and Reminiscences in 36 volumes, contain vivid pictures drawn by an acute and sympathetic observer who had exceptional opportunities of studying contemporary celebrities. They are preserved at Dr Williams’s Library in Gordon Square, London. Crabb Robinson seems to have intended to edit these for publication, but except for a meagre selection edited by Thomas Sadler and entitled The Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence of H. Crabb Robinson (1869), they have never been reprinted. Crab Robinson was one of the founders of the Athenaeum Club and of University College, London.
ROBINSON, JOHN (1650–1723), English diplomatist and prelate, a son of John Robinson (d. 1651), was born at Cleasby, near Darlington, on the 7th of November 1650. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, he became a fellow of Oriel College, and about 1680 chaplain to the British embassy to Stockholm, and remained in Sweden for nearly thirty years. During the absence of the minister, Philip Warwick, Robinson acted as resident and as envoy extraordinary, and he was thus in Sweden during a very interesting and important period, and was performing diplomatic duties at a time when the affairs of northern Europe were attracting -an unusual amount of attention. Among his adventures not the least noteworthy was his journey to Narva with Charles XII. in 1700. In 1709 Robinson returned to England, and was appointed dean of Windsor and of Wolverhampton; in 1710 he was elected bishop of Bristol, and among other ecclesiastical positions he held that of dean of the Chapel Royal. In August 1711 he became lord privy seal, this being, says Lord Stanhope, “the last time that a bishop has been called upon to fill a political office.” In 1712 the bishop represented England at the important congress of Utrecht, and at first plenipotentiary he signed the treaty of Utrecht in April 1713. Just after his return to England he was chosen bishop of London in succession to Henry Compton. He died at Hampstead on the 11th of April 1723, having been a great benefactor to Oriel College. Robinson wrote an Account of Sweden:
