Joseph Armitage Robinson Vanity Fair 14 December 1905

Memorial to Joseph Armitage Robinson in Wells Cathedral

Joseph Armitage Robinson (9 January 1858 – 7 May 1933) was a priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

and scholar. He was successively

Dean of Westminster The Dean of Westminster is the head of the chapter at Westminster Abbey. Due to the Abbey's status as a Royal Peculiar, the dean answers directly to the British monarch (not to the Bishop of London as ordinary, nor to the Archbishop of Canterbu ...

(1902–1911) and of Wells (1911–1933).

Biography

Robinson was born the son of a poor vicar in Keynsham, and was educated at

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' Conference (HMC). History Liverpool College was the first of many public schools founded in the Victorian ...

and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. He was ordained deacon in the Diocese of Ely in 1881, and priest in 1882, when he was Fellow. After a BA degree in 1881, he received his MA degree in 1884, was made Bachelor of Divinity (BD) in 1891, and Doctor of Divinity (DD) in 1896. His first ecclesiastical posting was a domestic chaplain to

Joseph Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His mo ...

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

from 1883 to 1884, following which he was curate of Great St. Mary,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

until 1886, then a Cambridge Whitehall preacher from 1886 to 1888. That year he was appointed examining chaplain to the

Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...

and vicar of

All Saints' Church, Cambridge All Saints' is a church on Jesus Lane in central Cambridge, England, which was built by the architect George Frederick Bodley. The church was constructed in stages between 1863 and 1870 and is a notable example of English Gothic Revival style. ...

where he stayed from 1888 until 1892. He was also a

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1884 to 1890. In 1893 he was appointed Norrisian professor of Divinity at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

, serving as such until 1899, during which he was also a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of th ...

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a ...

. He served as

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

St Margaret's, Westminster The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...

1899–1900, and was appointed a canon of Westminster in 1899, serving until his appointment as dean. In January 1902 he was appointed a Chaplain-in-Ordinary to

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

. The

George Granville Bradley George Granville Bradley (11 December 1821 – 13 March 1903) was an English divine, scholar, and schoolteacher, who was Dean of Westminster (1881–1902). Life George Bradley's father, Charles Bradley, was vicar of Glasbury, Brecon, mid Wales ...

, was severely ill throughout most of 1902, but wanted to stay in the position until the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

of the King in August. Bradley resigned the following month, and the King appointed Robinson Dean of Westminster in early October, followed by a formal installation in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

on 28 October 1902. As Dean of Westminster, he was in November 1902 appointed Acting Chaplain to the

Queen's Westminsters The Queen's Westminsters were an infantry regiment of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army. Originally formed from Rifle Volunteer Corps, which were established after a French invasion scare of 1859. The unit became part of the newly ...

, the largest

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

corps in London. Robinson was

Lord High Almoner The Royal Almonry is a small office within the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, headed by the Lord High Almoner, an office dating from 1103. The almoner is responsible for distributing alms to the poor. The Lord High Almoner is usually a ...

from 1906 to 1933. He served at Westminster until he was appointed

Dean of Wells The Dean of Wells is the head of the Chapter of Wells Cathedral in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. The dean's residence is The Dean's Lodging, 25 The Liberty, Wells. List of deans High Medieval *1140–1164: Ivo *1164–1189: Ric ...

in 1911. It has been suggested that the move to Wells was arranged to avoid friction in the run-up to the coronation of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

. As

Robinson enjoyed close links with

Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both ...

. He also critically explored the origins of the Glastonbury legends to which the Glastonbury Festival had revived attention. A renowned scholar in patristics (he was particularly known for his work on the Lausiac History and for having been the first person to translate into English the newly discovered work by

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...

The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching), Armitage Robinson was a participant in the bilateral Anglican-Roman Catholic Malines Conversations. He held honorary doctorates from

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

(Hon Ph.D., 1893) and Halle (Hon. D.Theol., 1894). He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1932, and died at Upton Noble, Somerset, on 7 May 1933 aged 75.

Works

* ''

Encyclopaedia Biblica ''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedi ...

'' (contributor), 1903. * ''St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, A revised text and translation with exposition and notes'' London 1903, Second Edition 1904. * ''The Lausiac History of Palladius (Texts and Studies, vol. vi)'',Cambridge 1904. * (with Cuthbert Butler) ''The Lausiac History of Palladius'', 1918. * ''The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching (translated from the Armenian with introduction and notes)'', 1920 * ''The Saxon Bishops of Wells'', London, 1919. * ''Somerset Historical Essays'', Oxford,1921. * ''The Times of St. Dunstan'', Oxford, 1923. * ''Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathaea'', Cambridge 1926. Reprinted in 2010 by

Kessinger Publishing Kessinger Publishing LLC is an American print-on-demand publishing company located in Whitefish, Montana, that specializes in rare, out-of-print books. According to Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publishing services at a bibliographic inform ...

, LLC.

References

* * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Joseph Armitage 1858 births 1933 deaths Deans of Westminster Deans of Wells Church of England deans Canons of Westminster People educated at Liverpool College Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Arthurian scholars Norrisian Professors of Divinity Fellows of the British Academy