188 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



(Packard) Robinson, born in East Briclgewater, Mass., 

 May 19, 1817, died at Saiigus, Sept. 2, 1888. He traced 

 bis paternal ancestry to Gain Packard, ^ the original set- 

 tler, wbo was from Ireland, landed at Plymouth, lived in 

 Braintree, Pembroke, and final ly in East Bridge water, 

 wbere he died in 1763, aged 81 years. His wife was Mar- 

 garet Watson, by whom he had Joseph,^ and other chil- 

 dren, Joseph^ married Abigail Keith, 1746 ; Benjamin, ^ 

 born 1748, married Eve Packard, 1770; Benjamin,* born 

 1784, the father of the subject of this notice. 



At the age of fifteen he shipped at New Bedford on a 

 three years' whaling cruise ; the results of his experience 

 and observations during this voyage were embodied in an 

 interesting paper, which he read at a regulär meeting of 

 the Institute, March 24, 1882, entitled, " What I know 

 about whaling." From that time until his thirty-third year 

 he followed the sea, in the various capacities on ship-board, 

 from the forecastle to the cabin, going to many of the prin- 

 cipal ports of Europe, East and the West Indies, when 

 he met with an accident, which produced a permanent 

 lameness, and thus necessitated a change in the character 

 of his future employment. He was obliged to confine him- 

 self principally to the use of the pen ; among the positions 

 which he held were a clerkship of twenty-five years in the 

 office of the secretary of state ; three years in the Charles- 

 town navy yard, etc., etc., in the meanwhile writing ar- 

 ticles for the newspaper press ; at a field meeting of the 

 Institute, held in Saugus, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 1881, he 

 gave an account of"The old iron works," Saugus, ^ also 

 "A notice of Saugus seminary," dedicated in 1821. ^ For 

 the five years immediately preceding his death he was a 

 confirmed invalid. 



Admitted to membership, Feb. 7, 1876. 



iSee Rist. Coli. E. I., Vol. XVIII, 241. 

 2See Hist. Co\l. E. I., Vol. XIX, 77. 



