Robinson, Joseph

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. M. Bumsted, “ROBINSON, JOSEPH,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/robinson_joseph_5E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Judge, politician, militia officer, author, and lawyer; b. c. 1742 in Virginia; m. Lelia ––, and they had at least two children, both daughters; d. 24 Aug. 1807 in Charlottetown, P.E.I.”
    • and ” A resident of South Carolina at the outbreak of the American rebellion, Joseph Robinson was major of the militia for Camden District. Ordered by Governor Lord William Campbell to march against the rebels in Ninety-Six District, he advanced with a party of men and fought the insurgents to a stand-off at the battle of Ninety-Six Court-House in November 1775.
    • In the mean time, however, Campbell had been forced to abandon the province, and Robinson and his men found themselves stranded in the west without money or stores. A price having been put on his head, he made his way through Cherokee and Creek country to East Florida, where he arrived in 1777; he was joined there by his wife and daughters, who had been driven by the rebels from the family plantation. Robinson was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the South Carolina Royalists and fought with his regiment in a number of small actions in the south during the remainder of the conflict.
    • Placed on the half-pay list of the British army in 1783, he went with his family to Jamaica the following year, but, finding the climate unsuitable, they moved on to New Brunswick in 1785. Finally, in 1789, Robinson settled on St John’s (Prince Edward) Island at the invitation of Lieutenant Governor Edmund Fanning, who particularly enjoyed the company of fellow loyalist officers. 
    • Robinson made his principal mark upon Island politics in 1796, with his pamphlet To the farmers in the Island of St. John, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. An extremely brief production – only four pages in length – the pamphlet mainly dealt with the difficulties of soil and climate facing the farmer on the Island. Contemporary critics claimed that Robinson was merely acting as spokesman for the Fanning–Stewart faction in raising and popularizing the escheat issue, and their interpretation may have been valid; however, he did not advocate – as often charged – a popular division of proprietorial lands on a freehold basis. 
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7065
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139522429/joseph-robinson