Agency:
Robinson Family
Agency Number:
Start Date:
01 Jan 1801
Description:
James William Robinson (1824-1906), the son of George William and Elizabeth Presnell, had a long career in the whaling industry. He went to sea as a ship's boy at 11, saw his first whale killed shortly before his 13th birthday, and rounded Cape Horn soon after. At 15, when he was working for a season at a Tasmanian bay-whaling station, his father died unexpectedly. While he worked mainly in the pelagic whaling industry out of Hobart, Robinson also carried a variety of cargoes to all the Australasian colonies, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, and to gold-rush California. He undertook the only Australian sealing voyage to subantarctic Heard Island, and collected guano off the Queensland coast. Ashore, he established and operated mines in both Victoria (gold) and Tasmania (tin). James married Jane Parsons Bently in 1847. Captain Alfred Bingley Robinson (1851-1934) was the second son of Captain James William and Jane Parson Robinson (nee Bently). He was born in Victoria while his father was at the gold diggings. Alfred married Mary Ann Clark in Hobart in 1873. They had 13 children between 1876 and 1894, although three died young. From October 1898 he was employed at the Eddystone Lighthouse. Robert Jackson was the superintendent at the time. Wilfred Gordon Robinson (1886-1979), son of Alfred Bingley, served in the Field Ambulance during the First World War, and was a farmer at Caveside, near Mole Creek. His son Wilfred Thomas Robinson also farmed at Caveside, and wrote poetry and family reminiscences.
Information Sources:
Michael Nash (ed.), Captain Robinson : the reminiscences of a Tasmanian master mariner James William Robinson 1824-1906 (Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 2009)
Related Agencies:
George William Robinson (NG3147) | 01 Jan 1801 | 07 Sep 1839 |
Series Created By Agency:
NS222 Reminiscences of Captain J W Robinson | 01 Jan 1819 | 31 Dec 1900 |
CRO71 Letters and Diaries of J W Robinson | 01 Feb 1864 | 18 May 1873 |
CRO84 Logbook - George Robinson | 06 Feb 1869 |
CRO80 Certificates and Medals | 17 Jan 1879 | 11 Jun 1977 |
CRO59 Alfred Bingley Robinson Notebooks and Diaries | 01 Jan 1880 | 16 Jul 1892 |
LMSS117 Diary | 01 Oct 1898 | 09 Jul 1902 |
NS713 Copies of Diaries | 01 Sep 1914 | 22 Nov 1918 |
CRO78 Literary Manuscripts | 09 Jul 1980 | 24 Aug 1984 |