Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby

In 1774 he founded the County Infirmary. In 1780 he donated land for the erection of a new prison and in 1771 he founded the Armagh Public Library.^[2] In 1790 he founded the Armagh Observatory as part of his plan for a university in Armagh.

Archbishop Lord Rokeby died at Clifton in Bristol on 10 October 1794, and was buried in Armagh Cathedral. He was succeeded by Matthew Robinson, 2nd Baron Rokeby, the son of his second cousin Matthew Robinson, who inherited his titles, and was a noted eccentric.

There is a memorial to Robinson in the south aisle at St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.^[3]

Reputation

Robert Walpole called Robinson 'a proud but superficial man'. John Wesley accused him of being more interested in buildings than in the care of souls.

Richard Cumberland described him as "splendid, liberal, lofty ... publicly ambitious of great deeds, and privately capable of good ones, ... he made no court to popularity by his manners but he benefited a whole nation by his public works".^[4]

Architectural benefactor

The Canterbury Gate at Christ Church, Oxford, completed in 1873, is one monument to Archbishop Lord Rokeby's munificence. The gate is inscribed:

MUNIFICENTIA ALUMNORUM PRAECIPUE RICARDI ROBINSON ARCHICEP. ARMAGH.

(By the munificence of alumni, especially of Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh.)

• 
  The Canterbury Gate, Christ Church, Oxford.
• 
  Robinson's Rokeby Lodge (aka Hall), near Dunleer, County Louth, Ireland, by Cooley and Johnston.
• 
  Robinson's Rokeby Hall, and its conservatory.

References