James W. Robinson (Texas and California)

James W. Robinson (c. 1791 – October 27, 1857) was a politician in what became the U.S. states of Texas and California.

J. W. Robinson was born in what is now Hamilton County, Indiana in c. 1791. He was a lawyer and partnered with future U.S. President, William Henry Harrison. He married Mary Isdell in 1820, but abandoned his first wife and five children when he left for Arkansas in 1828. His wife later obtained a divorce.

Robinson moved with Sarah K. Snyder or Snider, to Kentucky in 1828. She was born c. 1810. They later moved to Arkansas around 1830 where they were married. They had one son, William N. born c. 1840

Robinson moved to Nacogdoches, Texas in 1833 and received a land grant for a league of land.

Robinson was elected Lieutenant Governor of the provisional Texas government in 1835. Robinson was provisional Governor of Texas in 1836 after Governor Henry Smith was deposed, but Smith claimed it was invalid as there was no quorum present.

Robinson served in the Texas Army during the Texas War of Independence in 1836 and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. In 1835, he served as a delegate to the Texas 1835 Consultation of 1835 as a representative of the District of Nacogdoches. In 1836 he was elected District Judge, which automatically made him a Judge of the Texas Supreme Court, and served until 1840.

In 1842 he was captured and carried to Mexico, but arranged his release from Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1843.

Robinson moved to San Diego in the Spring of 1850 and was one of the few lawyers there, and was fluent in Spanish, so specialized in land law. Robinson expressed frustration at the Byzantine Spanish and Mexican land grant system, and the large size of the land grants. Robinson was one of the few Americans to speak out against U.S. recognition of Mexican land grants in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He said:

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