Robert Robinson

Born: September 27, 1735, Swaffham, Norfolk, England.

Died:  June 8, 1790, Showell Green, Warwickshire, England.

Buried:  Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, England.

    Robinson’s widowed mother sent him at age 14 to London, to learn the trade of barber and hair dresser. However, his master found he enjoyed reading more than work. Converted to Christ at age 17, Robinson became a Methodist minister. He later moved to the Baptist church and pastored in Cambridge, England. He wrote a number of hymns, as well as on the subject of theology. His later life was evidently not an easy one, judging from a well known story about his hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Bless­ing. One day, he encountered a woman who was studying a hymnal, and she asked how he liked the hymn she was humming. In tears, he replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

Hymns

  1. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
  2. Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee