ROBINSON, JOHN [SSNE 1115]
- Surname
- ROBINSON
- First name
- JOHN
- Title/rank
- DR REVEREND BISHOP
- Nationality
- ENGLISH
- Education
- UNIVERSITY
Text source
Reverend John Robinson, later Bishop of London, was chaplain to the Stuart embassy at the Swedish court where he remained more than 25 years particularly noted as secretary to William Duncome. Although he had initially served as the Stuart envoy Edward Wood's [SSNE 4440] secretary for a year, he remained in Sweden and then served envoy Philip Warwick [SSNE 1125] in the same capacity. Robinson himself became both resident and envoy extraordinaire, taking over from Warwick when he was recalled and then died in Britain. Robinson is listed as an envoy to Sweden in 1684 and he wrote to the Swedish king Karl XI in July that year explaining his position. One of his letters from 1690 makes reference to an illness and he may have withdrawn from diplomatic life for a time. An undated letter to the Swedish king was written on behalf of (presumably English) merchants Thomas Tooly and Jeffrey Littel/Little. On 10 February 1694 Robinson wrote regarding the well-received news of King William's command to release all Danish and Swedish ships which had been brought to England and were not to be confiscated. However he also held an official post in Sweden between 1694-5 during which time much of his correspondence concerned arrested vessels in England, and the difficulties that Stuart subjects trading in Stockholm sometimes got into. Robinson was still referred to as resident in 1698-99. In 1695 he published an "Account of Sueden". In 1700 he accompanied King Karl XII to Narva. He received fresh instructions as British Resident to Sweden between 1702-1703, and found himself seeking out the Swedish king in Poland-Lithuania, catching up with him near Kedaniai in Lithuania from where he wrote back some letters. He remained with him for some months that year. He returned to Danzig by the end of the year and is also said to have returned to England. In 1706 he was ordered back from Danzig to rejoin King Karl XII in Saxony where his mission was to try to dissuade the Swedish king from turning against the Austrian Habsburgs. Robinson retired briefly to Hamburg in 1707 to try and to mediate in some dispute there. After two years there he returned to England. He sent a letter from Stockholm in 1704 relating the difficulties in getting pitch and tar from there. Between 1694 and 1709 Robinson was a prolific correspondent regarding his duties in Sweden as over 40 letters have been found.
Sources: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0070091_00208#?c=&m=&s=&cv=207&xywh=1708%2C1741%2C4641%2C2545
Swedish Riksarkiv, Kommerskollegii Underdåniga Skrivelser 1651-1840 - John Robinson, Engelska Resident, 13/12/1698, 07/09/1699; Swedish Riksarkiv, Anglica 522, 523(containing ca.40 letters); The National Archives, SP 95/15 ff.317-318 and SP104/120, 153 & 201; British Museum, Add. MSS. 34667; Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, MS. Rawl. A. 286; The National Archives, Board of Trade. [Ind.8311]; The National Archives, SP/95/11-12, SP/104/153; Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1702-1703, p.494. 20 November 1702, Dr Robinson's Bill for extraordinary expenses plus exchange rate of 24 daler cm to the pound
Swedish Riksarkiv, Svenske Sändebuds till Utländske Hof och Deras Sändebud till Sverige (1841), p.85; L. Bittner and L. Gross, Reportorium der diplomatischen vertreter aller lander, vol. 1, 1648-1715 (Oldenburg and Berlin, 1936), pp.195, 199; J. F. Chance (ed.), British Diplomatic Instructions 1689-1789, vol. I, Sweden, 1689-1727 (London, RHS/Camden Society, 1922), pp.14-38; June Milne, ‘The Diplomacy of Dr John Robinson at the Swedish Court of Charles XII of Sweden, 1697-1709’ in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 30 (1948), pp. 75-93; S. Dixon et al (eds.), Britain and Russia in the age of Peter the Great (London, 1998), items 48 and 75; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.24, 327.
Service record
- STUART KINGDOMS, SWEDEN
- Arrived 1678-01-01
- Departed 1678-12-31
- Capacity CHAPLAIN, purpose ECCLESIASTICAL
- Arrived 1679-08-01
- Departed 1680-09-01
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- Arrived 1683-02-01
- Departed 1687-10-12
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- Arrived 1694-01-01
- Departed 1695-12-31
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- SWEDEN [AND GREAT BRITAIN], NARVA
- Arrived 1700-01-01
- Departed 1700-12-31
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- STUART KINGDOMS, SWEDEN
- Arrived 1701-01-01
- Departed 1702-11-20
- Capacity RESIDENT, purpose DIPLOMACY
- STUART KINGDOMS, POLAND-LITHUANIA, KEDANY, KEDANIAI [SWEDISH COURT, SWEDEN]
- Arrived 1702-12-22
- Departed 1703-11-30
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- STUART KINGDOMS, DANZIG [SWEDEN, SWEDISH EMBASSY]
- Arrived 1703-12-01
- Departed 1706-09-30
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- STUART KINGDOMS, SWEDEN
- Arrived 1704-01-01
- Departed 1704-12-31
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY
- STUART KINGDOMS, HAMBURG [SWEDISH EMBASSY, SWEDEN]
- Arrived 1707-10-01
- Departed 1709-12-31
- Capacity ENVOY, purpose DIPLOMACY