Miss Margaret Maria Eleanor ROBINSON (1840–1886)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 29, Grave L66½
MARGARET MARIA ELEANOR
ROBINSON
JULY 14TH 1886
.
The above brief text is on the arms of the horizontal cross that is part of the lid of this vault
Margaret Maria Eleanor Robinson was born at Stonesfield, Oxfordshire on 3 December 1840 and baptised there on 6 January 1841.
Her father was the Revd Francis Edward Robinson, who was born in Oxford on 29 October 1804 and baptised at St Michael-at-the-Northgate Church on 17 December; he in turn was the son of Thomas Robinson, who was a mercer-cum-banker who served as Mayor of Oxford in 1817/18 and later lived at Begbroke. Margaret’s father Francis went up to Corpus Christi College in 1819 at the young age of 14, and became a clergyman.
Her mother was Sophia Elizabeth Rowden, born in Highworth, Wiltshire on 1 June 1812, the daughter of Edward Rowden of Cuxham and New College who married Elizabeth Wetherell at St James’s Church in Cowley on 13 August 1811.
On 10 September 1831 at Highworth, Wiltshire, Margaret’s parents Frances Edward Robinson and Sophia Elizabeth Rowden were married. They had the following children:
- Francis Edward Robinson junior (born at Begbroke in 1832/3 and baptised there on 6 February 1833)
- Sophia Elizabeth Rowden Robinson (born at Stonesfield in 1834 and baptised there on 6 July)
- Thomas Auriol Robinson (born at Stonesfield on 25 December 1835 and baptised there on 24 January 1836)
- Georgina Margaret Robinson (born at Begbroke House in 1837 and baptised at Begbroke on 8 November)
- Walter Croke Robinson (born at Stonesfield on 4 June 1839 and baptised there on 30 June)
- Margaret Maria Eleanor Robinson (born at Stonesfield on 3 December 1840 and baptised there on 6 January 1841)
- William Henry Carns Robinson (born at Stonesfield in 1842 and baptised there on 26 September);
died aged one year five months and buried at Stonesfield on 1 February 1844) - Ellis Ashton Robinson (born at Stonesfield on 13 June 1845 and baptised there on 25 July)
- (Ellen) Mary Robinson (born at Stonesfield in 1846 and baptised there on 26 November)
- Charlotte Barbara Spooner Robinson (born at Stonesfield in 1850 and baptised there on 12 December).
- Ellen Trenchard Goodenough Robinson (born in Stonesfield in 1856, reg. fourth quarter).
(Curiously two daughters were given the forename Ellen, but the first was known by her middle name, Mary.)
At the time of the 1841 census Margaret’s father, the Revd Francis Edward Robinson senior, was the Rector of Stonesfield and was at home in the rectory there with his children Thomas (5), Georgina (3), and Walter (2). His wife Sophia was presumably away on a visit with the two eldest children Francis and Sophia, but they are hard to find in the census.
At the time of the 1851 census Margaret was ten years old, living at Stonesfield Rectory with her parents and five of her siblings: Francis junior (18), who was a member of the University of Oxford, and Sophia (16), Ellis (5), Ellen Mary (4), and Charlotte (six months). The family had a cook, housemaid, nurse, and footman. Three of her brothers were away: Thomas (15) was at Winchester College, and Walter (11) was at a clergyman’s school at Temple Grove House, Mortlake, Surrey. Georgina (13) was probably also away at school, but is hard to find.
Margaret's brother Thomas Auriol Robinson (born 1835) played cricket for Winchester College (1852–4), Hungerford Park (1854), and Oxfordshire (1858).
All of Margaret’s four surviving brothers went up to Oxford in the 1850s and 1860s and were matriculated as follows: Francis (Exeter College, 23 January 1850); Thomas (Corpus Christi College, 9 March 1854, formerly at Winchester); Walter (New College, 23 January 1858); and Ellis (Balliol College, 9 April 1864).
Her brother Thomas dropped out of Oxford within a year and joined the army. He was appointed Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 31 July 1855.
The main family is hard to find in the 1861 census, but two of Margaret’s sisters were visitors in other people’s homes: Sophia Robinson (26) was staying with her grandfather Edward Rowden, a widower of 80 who was still Vicar of Highworth; and Ellen Mary (14) was at Sarsden Rectory with the family of Charles Barter, Rector of Sarsden-cum-Churchill and of Cornwell.
Her brother Thomas resigned his commission on 17 September 1861.
Margaret's sister Sophia was married in 1867:
- On 30 April 1867 at St Marylebone Church in London, Sophia Elizabeth Bowden Robinson married John Goldsmith, a physician of Broadwater, Sussex and the son of Francis Robinson, Esq.
Margaret's brother Ellis Ashton Robinson gained his BA in 1868 (Third Class in Natural Sciences).
At the time of the 1871 census Margaret (40) was living at Stonesfield Rectory with her parents, her older brother Thomas (35), who was described as retired from the Royal Artillery; her brother Ellis (25), described as a B.A. of Balliol College; and her sister Ellen Mary (24). Thomas had turned to writing novels, and in 1873 Timothy Cripple; or, Life’s a Feast was criticized for his attack on his school.
In 1881 Margaret (40) and her four unmarried sisters Georgina (43), Ellen Mary (34), Charlotte (30), and Ellen (24) were all still living at home with their parents at Stonesfield Rectory, and the occupation of each was describe as “Lady”. The family had four servants living with them: a butler, cook, housemaid, and groom. Their unmarried brother Thomas was lodging at 1 Bonchurch Road in west London
Soon after 1881 the family moved to Oxford. They lived at 24 Beaumont Street, the house at the north-west corner near Worcester Street (right).
Two of Margaret's siblings were married in the 1880s:
- On 27 March 1883 at St Mark's Church, Marylebone Road, Ellen Trenchard Goodenough Robinson (21) a nurse of 191 Marylebone Road, married the student Frederick Gardner, described as being of 24 Beaumont Street, Oxford (Margaret's family home) and the son of the gentleman Thomas Gardner.
- In the second quarter of 1884 in Eastbourne, Ellis Ashton Robinson married Mary Harriet Rowden, daughter of the Revd Edward Rowden, Registrar of the University of Oxford, in 1884
Margaret died in Oxford in 1886:
† Miss Margaret Maria Eleanor Robinson died at 24 Beaumont Street at the age of 46 on 14 July 1886 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 17 July (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).
The following brief death notice appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on Saturday 24 July 1886: “July 14, at 24, Beaumont-street, Oxford, after a short illness, Margaret Maria Eleanor, third daughter of the Rev. Francis Robinson, late Rector of Stonesfield, near Woodstock.”
Parents of Margaret Robinson
The Revd Francis Edward Robinson (born 1804) died at 24 Beaumont Street at the age of 82 on 17 November 1886. His personal estate came to £20,858 10s. 7d.
Mrs Sophia Elizabeth Robinson, née Rowden (born 1812/13) died at 24 Beaumont Street at the age of 78 on 7 December 1890. Her personal estate came to £3,672 4s. 6d., and probate was granted to her son Ellis Ashton Robinson and daughter Ellen Mary Robinson.
They do not appear to have a grave in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, and their burials are not listed in the St Mary Magdalen register, so they may have been buried at Stonesfield (later burial registers of that parish not yet transcribed).
Siblings of Margaret Robinson
- Francis Edward Robinson junior (born 1833) gained his BA (a Fourth in Mathematics) in 1853. He was appointed Vicar of Drayton in 1878. In 1861 he married Henrietta Barter at Chipping Norton, and they had one child, Grace, baptised at Tubney Church on 15 January 1863. Henrietta died soon after the birth. He married his second wife Mary Caroline Butler in the Stroud district in 1867, and at the time of the 1881 census he and Mary were at Drayton Vicarage with Grace (18), the daughter of his first marriage, and their children Caroline (12), William (1), Frederick (9), Francis (7), Constance Mary (3), and Arthur Norris Robinson (1). Their next son Reginald Henry Robinson was born later that year. Another son, Cyril Butler Robinson, was born in 1888 but was buried at Drayton in 1890. Francis Robinson junior and and his second wife were still living at the vicarage in 1901 with Grace (38), and Margaret (14). Francis Edward Robinson junior was the Master of the Diocesan Guild of Bell Ringers from 1881 to 1910. He died at Fair Home, Wokingham on 16 February 1910 at the age of 77 and his effects came to £3,631 14s. 5d.
- Sophia Elizabeth Rowden Robinson, Mrs Goldsmith (born 1834) and her husband John Goldsmith do not appear to have had any children. At the time of the 1871 census they were living at Warwick Street, Worthing with two servants; in 1881 they were at Liverpool Gardens, Worthing with three servants; in 1891 at Highworth, Liverpool Road, Worthing; and in 1901 at Petersfield, Hampshire. In 1911 Sophia was a widow of 76, lodging in a Groombridge Villa, Oxford Road, East Preston, Sussex with a colporteur and his wife; her nephew John Rowden Gordon (22) was lodging in the same house. Sophia died in East Preston at the age of 88 in 1923.
- Thomas Auriol Robinson was lodging at 11 Northumberland Place, London in 1891. Near the beginning of 1892, at the age of 56, he married Violet Rebecca Davies. He died at 70 Creighton Avenue, East Ham at the age of 74 on 30 November 1910. His effects came to just £20.
- Georgina Margaret Robinson (born 1837) never married. At the time of the 1901 census she was aged 63 and living alone at 12 Bishop’s Park Mansions, Fulham with one servant. She died in 1927 in the Lewes district at the age of 89.
- Walter Croke Robinson (born 1839) gained a Second Class in Classical Moderations in 1859 and his BA in 1865. He was a Fellow of New College, and held various curacies between 1863 and 1873. He was known as Croke Robinson, and became the first Roman Catholic fellow of New College when he joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1872, soon after the repeal of the religious tests. He observed: “Bad popes and bad priests never troubled me for a moment. The office and the man are so obviously distinct that the mind must be addled that does not see it at a glance.” He was Censor at the Catholic University College in Kensington in the 1870s. His book Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln was published in 1896. He died suddenly at Brighton on 17 April 1914, but his home was then 13 Luxembourg Gardens, Hammersmith. His effects came to £1,166 3s. 11d. There is a memorial tablet to Mgr. Croke Robinson at Holy Trinity Church, Hammersmith given by two of his sisters and friends.
- Ellis Ashton Robinson (born 1845) was the proprietor of Malmesbury College, East Dulwich. His wife spent some of her time with her family in Oxford, where two of her children were born. In 1891 Ellis was at the college while Mary (33) was staying at 15 St Giles’s Street, Oxford with her widowed mother Mary Rowden and her children Dorothy Margaret Ellis Robinson (3), John Rowden Gordon Robinson (2), and Ellis Dieudonné L. D. Robinson (seven months). At the time of the 1901 census, after he had retired, Ellis (55) and Mary were living at Hinton Hall, Blyhbergh, Suffolk with their sons Ellis (10) and Wykeham Arnyas Alan Croke Robinson (7). In 1911 Ellis Robinson and his wife had separated, and he was living alone with a servant at a house in Kidlington called "Repose". He died at Ufton Nervet Rectory in Berkshire at the age of 90 in 1935, and is buried at St Peter’s Church there. His effects came to £2,045 5s. 1d.
- (Ellen) Mary Robinson (born 1846) never married. At the time of the 1901 census, when she was 56, she and her younger sister Charlotte (50) were living at Searsdale Villas, Kensington. By 1911 they had moved to 33 Powis Square, Bayswater, London, and their cousin Harriet Frances Isabel Rowden was also living with them. Supposed to have died in 1935. She died in Kensington at the age of 88 near the beginning of 1935.
- Charlotte Barbara Spooner Robinson (born 1850) never married. She was living in Kensington with Ellen Mary above in 1901 and 1911, and died there at the age of 87 in 1938.
- Ellen Trenchard Goodenough Robinson, Mrs Gardner (born 1856) was aged 44 at the time of the 1901 census and paying a visit with her daughter Margaret (17) to the family of her cousin William Robinson in Exmouth; and in 1911 she was visiting the family of the bank cashier Frederic Emary in Lew Trenchard. Mrs Ellen Trenchard Goodenough Gardner died at the age of 80 at the Redoubt Nursing Home, Royal Parade, Eastbourne on 6 November 1936. Her home was then at 7 Victoria Mansions, Victoria Place, Eastbourne, and her effects came to £3,344 4s. 8d.
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