The Painting

Cleasby celebrates it's most famous son

St Peter's Church in Cleasby, welcomed visitors from Lancashire, Yorkshire and even Kentucky on Sunday 19th October 2013, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the ordination of John Robinson as Bishop of London. Quite by chance Simon Robinson, a descendant of John Robinson's brother Christopher, got in on the act.

The Story

The new old painting of Bishop Robinson

Late night internet shopping is never a good idea

One January evening in 2012, whilst searching online for images of ancestors (like you do), I came across a website selling colour prints of Bishop John Robinson, brother of my six-greats grandfather Christoper Robinson. I confess I got a little carried away and clicked 'add to basket' and put in my card details. About six weeks later I took delivery, not of a small colour print, but of a large reproduction oil painting (20" x 25") rolled into a tube. Not knowing quite what to do I took it to a local framer. "Yeah cheap reproduction painting done in China" was his response. I was now the not-so-proud owner of repro-painting of a rather portly early 17th statesman to whom I happened to be distantly related. It was not a thing of beauty.

I hung it in the stairwell of my small Edwardian terrace house in Huddersfield. Now I only had to look at it as whilst descending the stairs! If I left the bathroom door open I could just about see his chubby face from a seated position on the loo. It felt a little weird to say the least. It was there that Bishop Robinson hung for for a little over 18 months. My then girlfriend (now wife) was not a fan; "the Bishop has got to go" was a regular refrain. But what to do?

I was aware that 2013 was the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht for which John Robinson had been Great Britain's First Plenipotentiary. So the 'obvious' choice was to offer it the Centrall Museum in Utrecht. I fired off an email, offering it as a gift for the 300th anniversary exhibition. A volunteer at the Museum responded: 'Dear Mr Robinson, We have sent your e-mail to Mr. Maarten Brinkman. He is one of our experts who organized the exhibition about the Treaty of Utrecht in our museum'. However, that was the last I heard. I needed a new plan!

I knew that John Robinson had been born in Cleasby and had remained connected with the village church of St Peter's throughout his life. Maybe they would like it? On my second attempt to make contact with the church I was put in touch with Martin Idale. To be honest I was anticipating a lukewarm response at best. To my surprise Martin was very pleased to hear from me as they were a planning a special event to commemorate the 300th anniversary of John Robinson's appointment as Bishop of London. They were to hold an exhibition on John Robinson's ecclesiastical and diplomatic life. This was to be followed by a commemorative service led by the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds. This event was just a few weeks off.

Not only did the St Peter's Church want to provide a home for the painting, they warmly invited me to the event to unveil the Bishop in the church of his birthplace. I was thrilled; my girlfriend was ecstatic. The Bishop was going home!

Cleasby resident Martin Idale gave a superb introduction to the event during an interview for local radio on the morning of the commemoration.

This stained glass was formerly in the west window of Bristol Cathedral, inserted there in 1710 in memory of John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol, and moved to Cleasby in 1906 (source)

This early 18th century inscription regarding John Robinson features Nordic runes acknowledged to be reference to his many years spent as envoy to Sweden.

Stained glassed windows commemorating the lives of Cleasby brothers Bishop John Robinson diplomat, and Christopher Robinson, who emigrated to Virginia in 1666.

The Exhibition

Reflections on the day

Article: SW Robinson, 2020

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