Robinson Reflections Part 1: The Robinsons (of Newby Hall?)

Abstract

Three complementary articles, collected as ‘Robinson Reflections’, will be published in Brontë Studies. The work attempts to add to the body of knowledge relating to the Robinson family of Thorp Green Hall and the story of the relationship between Branwell Brontë and Lydia Robinson (née Gisborne).The Robinson family in general and the details of the story of Branwell’s alleged involvement with Lydia are of great interest, not least because the drama unfolded over the period when Charlotte, Emily and Anne were composing novels. Dr Tom Winnifrith of Warwick University has said that ‘[the Robinsons] were about the only large family, and certainly the only grand family, that the Brontës knew well’. As such, they were a primary source of inspiration for many of the characters, situations and attitudes which the Brontë sisters called upon in their work.This article provides evidence that the Thorp Green Robinsons were related to the Robinsons of Newby Hall (the family of the Earl of Ripon) and proposes the existence of an ancestral link between Elizabeth Metcalfe (the Reverend Edmund Robinson’s mother) and the Newby Robinsons. It also demonstrates the significance of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne’s presence in Durham by suggesting that the Reverend Patrick Brontë’s Durham connections contributed to both Anne Brontë’s arrival at Thorp Green and William Weightman’s appointment to Haworth. The links between Thorp Green and Newby have echoes in the life and times of Ned Robinson, Anne and Branwell Brontë’s pupil.