Robinson Family Papers, 1684-1915.

Access and use

Location of collection:
Colonial Williamsburg
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Douglas Mayo
Phone: (757) 565-8521
Phone: (757) 565-8520
Fax: (757) 565-8528

Summary

Creator:
Robinson Family.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

Original seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth-century manuscripts, official documents, sketches, and photographs, as well as copies of original letters and documents relating to Charles W. Robinson and his ancestors. The bulk of the material relates to Charles W. Robinson's efforts to trace and register his family pedigree with London's Herald's College.

Biographical / historical:

Christopher Robinson arrived in Virginia, from England, in approximately 1668. He quickly established himself at a plantation called "Hewick," named after his family's Hewick estate in England. Descendants of Christopher Robinson soon became influential landholders, tobacco traders, and political leaders in the colony. Christopher Robinson's great-grandson, Christopher IV, took the side of the Crown during the American Revolution, accepting a captain's position with the Queen's Rangers. After Britain's defeat in America, Christopher of the Queen's Rangers relocated to Canada where he served the royal government in various capacities. Charles W. Robinson descended from this "Hewick" line of the Robinson family. In addition to members of the Robinson family, notable names discussed in the collection of documents include: Richard Corbin, Ralph Wormeley, Albert W. Woods, H. Farnham Burke, Lyon G. Tyler, Letitia Cornwallis, J. H. Coombe, Thomas Jefferson, King George III, General Robert Porteus, John Maynard, Edmund Pendleton, John Graves Simcoe, Robert Rogers, "Mr. Dinwiddie," John Wentworth, Fletcher Norton, and George Wythe.

Acquisition information:
Purchase, 1994.
Arrangement:

All items are bound in two volumes, Original Family Papers Virginia and Canada 1684-1798 and Family History Papers I: Records, Wills, Lawsuits, Herald's College Correspondence, etc., with board covers accented with leather bindings.

Physical description:
2 volumes.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
American loyalists--Canada.