Thomas Robinson Sr. (1676 - abt. 1740)

Born 21 Mar 1676 in Meikle Govan, Hillok, Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland

Husband of Sarah (Gilbert) Robinson — married 3 Apr 1697 (to about 1711) in Ireland

Descendants

Died about 29 Mar 1740 at about age 64 in Pennsylvania

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Biography

Thomas Robinson Sr. was born at Meikle Govan, Portobello, Scotland, on March 21, 1675/6. He emigrated to Ireland, settling in Dublin, in 1689, and afterwards in Londonderry. He married Sarah Gilbert, daughter of Philip Gilbert, on April 3, 1697, and had seven children, and leased land from the Society of the Governor and Assistants of London, of the New Plantation in Ulster, in the Kingdom of Ireland, or as it was better known, the Irish Society, which held sway over the county of Londonderry, between the rivers Foyle and Bann, leasing and subletting its valuable rights and priviledges. It was sub-leased from the Jackson family, and Thomas Robinson is described as a clothworker, of Coleraine, which was the chief town in the Bann Valley, and from this section came most of the immigrants to Pennsylvania in 1718. Thomas Robinson emigrated to Lancaster Co., PA, with his sons, settling in 1726 at Derry, and some of the sons went afterwards to Hanover, Pennsylvania, ^[1]

The region in which he settled can bardly be surpassed by any part of the country for its natural advantages and beauty of scenery. It possessed peculiar attractions for the hardy and adventurous settlers, and it was aa faborite hunting groud of the Indians. Families generally united in forming settlements, placing their residences sufficiently near each other to form social neighborhoods, to meet for purposes of religious worship, to give each other help in farming, and to protect each other should danger arise.

Captain Thomas Robinson fought in the Revolutionary War. He commanded a company under Colonel (later General) Wayne at Ticonderoga in 1776; he was woulded in the battle of Brandywine while service as a major.

Sources

1. ↑ Excerpt from: Robinson, Thomas Hastings: 1902 Title: Robinson, Rev. Thomas Hastings, 1828-1906, Thomas Robinson & His Descendants (1902) - Family History of Robinson, Blaine, McCord. LC # CS71.R66 1902 (Harrisburg,PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1902)

• Pennsylvania Genealogies Title: William Egle (reprint at Baltimore, 1969) ] Page: page 611 "Among the earliest Scotch-Irish settlers in Pennsylvania was the family of Thomas Robinson, who came to America prior to the year 1730. The sons, Andrew, William, and Richard located in Derry township, then Lancaster county, Pa.; the others in the adjoining township of Hanover."