Abstract
Born in 1710, Robert Dingley was the eldest surviving son of Susanna and Robert Dingley, a prosperous jeweller and goldsmith of Bishopsgate Street, London. He and his brother Charles were made free of the Russia Company on 3 August 1731; Charles established himself at St Petersburg and Robert traded from Bishopsgate. In 1741, by then a court assistant, Robert helped secure an Act of Parliament enabling the Russia Company to import Persian silk, via Russia, on better terms. Robert Dingley’s early interest in the arts is shown by his active membership of the Society of Dilettanti from its inception in the 1730s and the Society of Antiquaries from December 1734. He was first introduced at the Royal Society in November 1738 by Peter Filenius (F.R.S.), Professor of Oriental Languages at Åbo (Turku) and an honorary Fellow of the Antiquaries. In 1744 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Thompson of Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, at Somerset House Chapel. Martin Folkes, the President, communicated to the Royal Society in May 1747 an impressive paper by Dingley on the classical art of engraving gems. Resigning from the Society of Antiquaries on 13 June 1748, Dingley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 3 November and admitted on 10 November. Five signatories of his certificate were influential members of the Antiquaries.
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