Thomas Robinson, 1st Baronet Rokeby

Sir Thomas Robinson, 1st Baronet (1703–1777) was an English politician, architect and collector. An extravagant character, his life was the inspiration for numerous anecdotes.

He was eldest son and heir of William Robinson (bapt. Rokeby, Yorkshire, 23 September 1675, d. 24 February 1720), who married, in 1699, Anne, daughter and heiress of Robert Walters of Cundall in Yorkshire; she died on 26 July 1730, aged 53, and was buried in the centre of the south aisle of Merton church, Surrey, where a marble monument was placed to her memory. Sir Thomas, her son, also erected on the old Roman highway, near Rokeby, an obelisk in her honour. Another son, Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby was primate of Ireland.

After finishing his education, Robinson went on the Grand Tour, paying attention to architecture in Greece and Italy, and the school of Palladio. On returning to England he purchased a commission in the army, but resigned it in favour of his brother Septimus.

At the general election of 1727 he was returned to parliament, through the influence of George Bowes, for the borough of Morpeth. He was a government supporter, and sought a seat in Cornwall, but without success. He made some long speeches. They included one which, according to Horace Walpole, he was supposed to have found among the papers of his wife's first husband.

Robinson was created a baronet on 10 March 1731, with remainder to his brothers and to Matthew Robinson, and from November 1735 to February 1742 he was a commissioner of excise. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1735.

Robinson's expenditure was extravagant. He rebuilt Rokeby Hall at Rokeby Park, the name of which he changed from Rookby. He enclosed the park with a stone wall (1725–30), and planted many forest trees (1730). These acts were recorded in 1737, in two Latin inscriptions on two marble tables, fixed in the two stone piers at the entrance to the park from Greta Bridge. He practically made the place of which Sir Walter Scott wrote in his poem Rokeby, and built the great bridge which spans the River Tees there.

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