ROB 
must have been considerably beyond his prime, as he was 
arrived at his seventy-fifth year when he died. 
The following account of this marriage from the pen of a 
female friend of Mrs. Robinson’s, will probably be deemed 
interesting by our readers. 
“Among the number of persons of distinction who fre¬ 
quented Mr. Robinson’s house, and seemed to distinguish 
his daughter in a particular manner, were the Earl of Peter¬ 
borough and General H-; the latter had shewn a long at¬ 
tachment to her, and his attentions were so remarkable, that 
they seemed more than the effects of common politeness; 
and as he was a very agreeable man, and in good circum¬ 
stances, he was favourably received, not doubting but that his 
intentions were honourable. A declaration of a very con¬ 
trary nature was treated with the contempt it deserved, though 
Mrs. A. Robinson was very much prepossessed in his favour.” 
“ Soon after this. Lord P. endeavoured to convince her 
of his partial regard for her; but, agreeable and artful as 
he was, she remained very much upon her guard, which 
rather increased than diminished his admiration and passion 
for her. Yet still his pride struggled with his inclination ; 
for all this time she was engaged to sing in public, a circum¬ 
stance very grievous to her, but urged by the best of mo¬ 
tives, she submitted to it, in order to assist her parents, 
whose fortune was much reduced by Mr. Robinson’s loss of 
slight, which deprived him of the benefit of his profession as 
a painter.” 
“ At length Lord P. made his declaration to her on ho¬ 
nourable terms; he found it would be vain to make pro¬ 
posals on any other; and as he omitted no circumstance that 
could engage her esteem and gratitude, she accepted them, as 
she was sincerely attached to him. He earnestly requested 
her keeping it a secret till it was a more convenient time for 
him to make it known, to which she readily consented, 
having a perfect confidence in his honour.” 
“ Lord P. took a house near Fulham, in the neighbourhood 
of his own villa, at Parson’s-Green, where he settled Mrs. 
Robinson and her mother. They never lived under the 
same roof, till the earl, being seized with a violent fit of 
illness, solicited her to attend him at Mount Bevis, near 
Southampton, which she refused with great firmness, but 
upon condition that, though still denied to take his name, 
she might be permitted to wear her wedding ring; to which, 
finding her inexorable, he at length consented.” 
“ His haughty spirit was still reluctant to the making a 
declaration, that would have done justice to so worthy a 
character as the person to whom he was now united. 
But at last he prevailed on himself to do her justice, 
instigated, it is supposed, by his bad state of health, 
which obliged him to seek another climate, and she 
absolutely refused to go with him unless he' declared his mar¬ 
riage ; her attendance upon him in his illness nearly cost her 
her life.” 
“ He appointed a day for all his nearest relations to meet 
him at the apartment over the gate-way of St. James’s 
palace, belonging to Mr. Pointz, who was married to Lord 
Peterborough’s niece, and at that time preceptor to prince 
William, afterwards duke of Cumberland. Lord P. also 
appointed Lady P. to be there at the same time; when they 
were all assembled he began a most eloquent oration, enu¬ 
merating all the virtues and perfections of Mrs. A. Robin¬ 
son, and the rectitude of her conduct during his long ac¬ 
quaintance with her, for which he acknowledged his great 
obligations and sincere attachment, declaring he was deter¬ 
mined to do her that justice which he ought to have done 
long ago, which was presenting her to all his family as his 
wife. He spoke this harangue with so much energy, and 
in parts so pathetically, that Lady P. not being apprised of 
his intentions, was so affected that she fainted away in the 
midst of the company.” 
ROBINSON’S ISLAND, a small island in the Florida 
stream. Lat. 24. 43. N long. 81. 35. W. 
ROBINSONIA [so named from one Robinson], in botany, 
a genus of the class icosandria, order monogynia. Generic 
Character.—Calyx: perianth one-leafed, turbinate, five- 
R O B 147 
toothed; teeth acute. Corolla: petals five, roundish, con¬ 
cave, spreading, inserted into the calyx. Stamina: filaments 
very many, capillary, thickened towards the top, inserted into 
the calyx below the petals. Anthers two-celled ; cells oblong, 
divaricated at the base. Pistil: germ superior; style none ; 
stigma oblong, striated. Pericarp : berry, globular-depressed, 
scored longitudinally with many contiguous grooves, 
crowned with the teeth of the calyx, fleshy, seven-celled; 
partitions membranaceous. Seeds solitary, oblong, com¬ 
pressed, outwardly convex, villose. Essential Characte'r. 
—Calyx five-toothed; petals five; berry striated, two- 
celled, cells one-seeded. Seeds villose. 
Robinsonia melianthifolia..—This is a large tree. Leaves 
alternate, almost like those of melianthus major, unequally 
pinnate, the leaflets lanceolate-acuminate, finely serrate, 
veined, the upper ones decreasing at the base into the com¬ 
mon petiole. Stipules oblong, acute, small. Flowers yel¬ 
low, minute, in a terminating panicle. Berry eatable, 
slightly acid, and of a pleasant taste, size of a cherry.— 
Native of Guiana, in woods. 
ROBION, a small river in the south-east of France, 
department of the Isere. It falls into the Rhone, near Mont- 
melian. 
ROBISON (John), a distinguished writer on various 
branches of natural philosophy, was born at Boghall, in the 
county of Stirling, in Scotland. His father, a Glasgow mer¬ 
chant, who had amassed a considerable fortune, intended the 
subject of this memoir for the church, and, therefore, sent 
him at an early age as student of humanity to the Glasgow 
University. Here he was instructed in the rudiments of 
Latin and Greek literature by Dr. Moore, the well known 
professor of Greek ; and he acquired such a knowledge of 
these languages as served to render him a correct classical 
scholar. He pursued his studies with so much attention, as 
to obtain the approbation of his teachers, and the admiration 
of his contemporaries, and he took the degree of Master of 
Arts in 1756, having studied mathematics under Dr. Robert 
Simson, where correct and rigid methods of demonstration 
must unquestionably have exercised considerable influence 
on his yet unformed taste in mathematics; but he seems to 
have had a natural preference, either from the constitution of 
his mind, or from some previously acquired habits of think¬ 
ing, for the geometrical method; for we are informed that 
“ he first attracted the regard of Dr. Simson by owning his 
dislike of algebra, and by returning a neat geometrical so¬ 
lution of a problem which had been given out to the class 
in an algebraical form ; with this mode of solution the pro¬ 
fessor was delighted, though the pupil candidly acknow¬ 
ledged that it had been adopted only because he could not 
solve the problem in the manner required of the class.” 
He had imbibed, in the course of his studies, an insuper¬ 
able aversion to the pursuit of his original objects in the 
church; probably from some difficulties that had occurred 
to him respecting particular points of doctrine. He ■was 
therefore compelled to provide himself with some other oc¬ 
cupation ; and he readily accepted the offers of some of his 
friends in 1758," to recommend him to Dr. Blair, a preben¬ 
dary of Westminster; who had formed a scheme for sending 
Prince Edward, the young duke of York, to complete his 
professional education at sea, in company with Admiral 
Knowles; and Mr. Robison was to have instructed his 
Royal Highness in mathematics and navigation. He was 
much disappointed, on his arrival in London, to find that 
the expedition had never been seriously intended; and he 
readily accepted an engagement to attend young Knowles as 
a private tutor, when he went as midshipman on board of 
the Neptune of 99 guns, with Admiral Saunders, who had 
the command of a force intended to co-operate with Ge¬ 
neral Wolfe in the reduction of Quebec ; and upon the ap- 
intment of his friend as a lieutenant on board of the Royal 
illiam, Robison was himself rated as a midshipman in 
that ship. 
The fleet arrived on the coast of America in April 1759; 
in May they got up the river, and Mr. Robison was one of 
a party of 100 seamen, draughted from the Royal William 
into 
