Biography of Col. Tully (3) Robinson
§ Brother to Elizabeth (3) Robinson Smith & Mary (3) Robinson Thorowgood
§ Husband to Sarah West
§ Son to Capt. William (2) Robinson and Elizabeth (2) Tully
§ Nephew to General John Custis
§ Father to daughters Ann (4) Robinson Hancock, Mary (4) Robinson, West (4) Robinson Smith, Scarbourgh (4) Robinson Wise, Sarah (4) Robinson Wise, Susanna (4) Robinson McClenahan, and Elizabeth (4) Robinson Smith.
§ Father to son William (4) Robinson.
World View of the PeriodThe Principle Robinsons of Generation Three lived their lives during the last half of the 17th Century and their mature years in the first quarter of the 18th Century. This was a happy time to be an Englishman and living in Virginia.
For one thing the security of the little string of English colonies clinging to the Atlantic seaboard in America improved. With King Charles II on the throne the rivalry with the Dutch in New York and the Swedes in Delaware ended. England took over these territories. Other English colonies were created south of Virginia in the Carolinas and Georgia.
Europe would find itself beset with enormous problems. Many cities were scourged by the plague. In 1669 in London alone 69,000 people died of the disease spread by fleas which bite rats and humans alike. And wars between European nations broke out constantly, killing many more people. The so-called First Great Northern War came when Sweden and Russia went to war over Polish territory. As we’ve noted earlier England had its “Glorious Revolution” in 1688. That was all the excuse King Louis XIV in France needed. He declared war against England, the first of a series pitting England and allies against the growing French power. At the dawn of the 18th Century, the Second Great Northern War began between Sweden and other Baltic nations including Denmark and Russia. That one would last for more than 20 years..
A reason so many wars disrupted Europe’s 18th Century life `was because most Europeans were ruled by kings. What happens when a king dies and leaves no prince or princess to take his place? Trouble! In those days the most important job a queen could perform was give birth to a healthy baby to take the king’s place should he die. It was best in most countries if the Queen’s baby were a boy, since it was usually easier to make a prince into a king than it was to make a princess the supreme ruler. Despite this many successful Queens ruled great countries in Europe, women like Elizabeth I and Queen Anne in England, Catherine the Great in Russia, and Maria Theresia in Austria. But as Third Generation Robinsons looked about their world they saw important thrones become vacant with no heir with a clear right. One of these vacancies occurred in Spain in 1701. The War of the Spanish Succession lasted for 13 years, with England, Austria, Prussia, and the Netherlands on one side and France and Spain on the other.
When Europe finally gathered for a peace conference it was at a German city called Utrecht. The leading diplomat at that conference for England was a John Robinson, believed to be a cousin of our Robinsons in Virginia. As a young man John Robinson learned to speak many languages and he must have been a skillful negotiator because England came away from the peace conference with many new possessions, including the great fortress at Gibraltar. The English crown rewarded John Robinson by appointing him first Bishop of Bristol and later Bishop of London.
It was during these years that Scotland and England, long time rivals, were united as a single country calling itself Great Britain. It was also at this time, in 1709, that Russia, for the first time defeated a western power, turning back the invading Swedish army at Poltava. The victory seemed to foreshadow what would happen in later centuries when invading armies led by Napoleon of France and Hitler of Germany would be turned back deep inside Russia.
At the end of the Generation Three years two events should be mentioned, England’s long-time menace, Louis XIV, died in 1714. And in London a new drink became popular in British bars. It was called gin.
Robinson View of the Period
Colonel Tully (3) Robinson was born on August 31, 1658, the first child and oldest son of Captain William (2) and Elizabeth Tully Robinson, probably at the family plantation in Lower Norfolk County. However other sources have indicated that Tully (3) “Robinson is said to been born in Northampton County.”
We speculate that Tully (3) lived in Princess Anne County until close to his father’s death in 1695 as there are few records of his connections in Accomack County until after that event. While he received a life estate of his father’s land holdings in Princess Anne County, other records indicate little or no presence in Princess Anne County affairs after his father’s death. So, the family property must have been managed from a distance. At one point he even granted a Power of Attorney to represent his interests in Norfolk and Princess Anne County.
The earliest government record concerning Tully was when at age 18, in 1676, he witnessed a will in Lynnhaven Parish, Lower Norfolk County. Several years following this, about 1679, he married Sarah West of a prominent Eastern Shore family. Tully (3)’s father-in-law had amassed over 4000 acres by the time of his death in Accomack County alone making him probably of the largest land owners on the Eastern Shore and in Virginia. Together Tully (3) and Sarah Robinson had seven daughters and one son. Three of the daughters married into the Smith family including one marrying a first cousin. The Smiths became close allies of the Robinson family in Princess Anne County and then on the Eastern Shore. Another daughter married into the Wise family of the Eastern Shore.
“The intermarriages among the Wise, Custis, Littleton, Scarburgh, West, Robinson, and Douglas families are so numerous that they are bewildering,” writes an Eastern Shore biographer. “Indeed so closely related are many of these families through frequent intermarriages that it is almost impossible to determine their exact relationships. In no section of the country is early kinship so involved as in Accomack and Northampton counties.”
A Wise family biographer alleged that the name “Tully Robinson Wise” soon became one of the most prominent names of that family for many generations. One or two daughters also married into the McClenahan family of Princess Anne County, Virginia. So, while Tully (3) remained in Accomack County on the Easterns Shore, it appears his children returned to his roots in Princess Anne County and started their own families. Records show that all the branches of family remained close for many generations and worked together. No doubt these connections helped to sustain the Robinsons influence in church and political affairs.
Throughout much of 1676, when Tully was just 18 years old, Bacon's Rebellion probably consumed much of the Robinson family’s attention. As one review of the events declares:
Bacon's Rebellion was probably one of the most confusing yet intriguing chapters in Jamestown's history. For many years, historians considered the Virginia Rebellion of 1676 to be the first stirring of revolutionary sentiment in America, which culminated in the American Revolution almost exactly one hundred years later. However, in the past few decades, based on findings from a more distant viewpoint, historians have come to understand Bacon's Rebellion as a power struggle between two stubborn, selfish leaders rather than a glorious fight against tyranny. The central figures in Bacon's Rebellion were opposites. Governor Sir William Berkeley, seventy when the crisis began, was a veteran of the English Civil Wars, a frontier Indian fighter, a King's favorite in his first term as Governor in the 1640's, and a playwright and scholar. His name and reputation as Governor of Virginia were well respected. Berkeley's antagonist, young Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., was actually Berkeley's cousin by marriage…Bacon's Rebellion can be attributed to a myriad of causes, all of which led to dissent in the Virginia colony. Economic problems, such as declining tobacco prices, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods (mercantilism) caused problems for the Virginians. There were heavy English losses in the latest series of naval wars with the Dutch and, closer to home, there were many problems caused by weather. Hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes rocked the colony all in the course of a year and had a damaging effect on the colonists. These difficulties encouraged the colonists to find a scapegoat against whom they could vent their frustrations and place the blame for their misfortunes.
Escaping the Bacon rebels in Jamestown where the rebels had burned the town, Governor Berkeley sought refuge from the rebels at the Custis Plantation Arlington in Accomack County across the Chesapeake Bay and home to many loyal families. Because of past Custis-Robinson ties we assume Captain William (2) Robinson and Tully (3) would have stood by Governor Berkeley in this contest. It has been noted that the Robinsons were “Royalist leaders of Accomack and Northampton…[and] were Cavaliers, not only by sympathy, but by blood.”Tully was probably educated in Lower Norfolk County and studied law under his father or his father’s colleagues on the Lower Norfolk County Court. In 1697 records show Tully (3) became a member of the Accomack County court and began the practice of law. In 1699 and in 1702, like his father before him, he served as a member of the House of Burgesses. Representing Accomack County in both instances, Tully (3) was present when “the General Assembly of Virginia established the City of Williamsburg as the colony's capital. The new city, formerly known as Middle Plantation, was named in honor of King William III, and home to the College of William and Mary. In 1722, George I granted a royal charter incorporating the City of Williamsburg after the fashion of the English municipal borough.”
Tully (3)’s political career and influence continued until his death. He served in 1710 and 1711 as the Accomack County Sheriff and County Coroner in 1714. Later he represented Accomack County again in the House of Burgesses in 1718, 1722, and 1723. In addition, he served as “a vestryman of St. George’s Church, Pungoteague; and [was] prominent for many years in the social and official life of Accomack.”
Further research is needed to determine if Tully (3) accompanied Governor Spotswood and the “Knights of the Golden Horse-shoe” on the famous 1716 expedition to cross the BlueRidge and explore Shenandoah Valley. Other research should be undertaken to understand his militia career and how he earned his commissions.
As an attorney and magistrate, Tully (3) was involved in many cases over the course of his career including the following sample:
§ December 6, 1705: “At a Court held & continued by her Majesties Justices of Peace for ye County of Accomack December ye 6th 1705. Present Coll Edm'd. Scarbugh, Lt. Coll. Tully Robinson, Capt. Geo. Parker, Capt. Jno. Bradhurst, Mr. Robt. Hutchinson. Whereas John Warrington brought accon of ye case to this Court agst. John Leatherbury and declares for three thousand pounds of tobacco damage and he failing to appear after proclamacon made according to law & ye Sheriff returned George Parker of Matoonkin security. it is therefore ordered that in case of a nidicter ..hil next Cort of ye sd John Leatherbury that then ye sd Geo. Parker as baile stand & abide ye award ye Cort.”
§ February 7, 1705: “At a Court held & continued for Accomack County by her Maj'ties Justices of ye Peace for ye sd. County February ye 7th 1705. Present Coll. Wm. Custis, Coll. Tully Robinson, Capt. Geo. Parker, Capt. Jno. Bradhurst, Mr. Robt. Hutchinson. Whereas John Warrington brought accon of ye case to ye last Crt. agst. John Leatherbury ye accon being called ye Plaintiff & Defendant appearing ye defend't. caused a reference to this Court & this Court ye accon being called ye plaintiff & defendant appearing ye declaracon being read ye defendant by his attorney put in a plea in wrighting (sic) for plea saith he is misnamed both in ye writt and declaration & therefore prayes that ye accon may abate & that he may suffer nonsuit ye plaintiff demurred to his plea & sd. it was not suffecient to a case ye accon. Ye Court thought ye plea not suffecient to a case ye accon and so overruled the same which being overruled & it is ordered that they plead over ye defendant put in his plea in wrighting and for plea say not guilty and put himself upon ye Cuntry & ye plaintiff in like manner and jury being called and sworn to try ye matter of fact whose names are as followeth; John West foreman, Anthony West, John West Junr., Sabastian Cropper, Henry Bagwell, John Stanton, William Willet, Simon Michael, Thomas Bonwell, John Abbott, Mark Ewell, Henry Read. & ye evidences & allegations on both sides being heard as well on ye plaintiffs behalfe as ye defendants in ye presents of the Cort and Jury & ye Cort charged ye Jury therewith and they returned there verdict in these words. We of the Jury do find for ye plaintiff five pcts. of tobacco damage & ye plaintiff prayed that ye Jury's verdict be confirmed. Ye Cort do confirm ye Jury's verdict and order ye defendant; farther with pay to ye plaintiff one thousand foot of half inch, five hundred foot of inch pine plank as is set forth in ye declaration and five pounds of tobacco damage with cost of suit alias Execucion.”
§ February 1, 1706: “At a court held for Accomack County Febr. ye first 1706. Present his Majesty's Justices of the Peace Lt. Coll. Tully Robinson, Maj. Bennett Scarbough. Mr. Tobert Hutchinson, Mr. John Wise. This day William Warrington and Thomas Warrington presented to the court the Last Will and Testament of Stephen Warrington, deceased, for probation, they being executors, which was proven in open court by the oaths of John Stanton and Thomas Dolby (Author's note; the Will reflected witness Thomas Roby,) which was by the court allowed for suffecient profe and ordered to be put upon record.”
§ April 1, 1718: “At a Court held for Accomack County by his Maj'ties Justices of ye Peace for ye sd. County April ye 1st 1718. Present Coll. Tully Robinson, Maj'r Geo. Parker, Mr. William Burton, Mr. Edm'd. Scarbugh, Mr. Jno. Teackle.
§ October 8, 1718: “At a Cort held and continued for Accomack County by his Maj'ties Justices of ye Peace for ye sd County October ye 8th 1718. Present Coll. Tully Robinson, Maj'r Geo. Parker, Mr. Hancock Custis, Mr. Wm. Burton, Mr. Edm'd. Scarbugh, Mr. Jno. Teackle. This day Walter Warrington petitioned the Cort for his attendance as an evidence for Thomas Onions in an accon defending this Cort whereas ye sd. Onions is pltt. & Ralph Justice, John Justice & Abbott Justice is defd'ts. he having made oath yt. he attended six days thereon ye Cort doe thereupon order ye Thomas Onions deft. forthwith pay to ye sd. Walter Warrington ye sum of two hundred & twenty four pds. of Tobo. with cost alias Execucon.”
§ July 4, 1721: “At a court held for Accomack County by his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said County, July ye 4th 1721. Present Coll, Tully Robinson, Coll. Henry Scarbugh, Mr. William Burton, Capt. Richard Drummond.”Like his father, Tully Robinson amassed significant land holdings in his lifetime (although his interests in many of them were limited in several instances to mere life estates) including:
§ Tully (3) inherited his father’s lot in Norfolk.
§ Tully (3) inherited a life estate of his father’s plantation with the remainder going to William (4)--Tully (3)’s only son. It is presumed that this plantation was located on the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in the Parish of Lynnhaven and equaled about 500 acres.
§ On November 4, 1685 Frances Lord Howard patented Tully (3) 100 acres lying on the south side of the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River, Lynhaven Parish in County of Lower Norfolk near Nichols Land, bounding on the Emperers, Sovels Creek, and Sousies patent (the patent was for transporting two persons to colony). This land was later part of the County of Norfolk when Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties were created out of the former Lower Norfolk County. Tully sold this land for 25 pounds to John Hopkins on December 24, 1702.
§ By 1704 Tully (3) had amassed 600 acres in Accomack County, VA. It is believed that this plantation is probably the same 600 acre life estate Tully’s wife Sarah inherited from her father the previous year. In John West’s will he provided a legacy of the “planta. at Onancock called ye Folly.”
§ On May 1, 1706, along with his brother-in-law Jonathan West, Tully (3) Robinson was patented 500 acres on Pumeno Island.
§ In 1715 Tully (3)’s uncle, Benjamin Robinson, died and left a legacy of 250 acres in Northampton County to his wife Elizabeth. Tully (3) contested the will and was apprantly awarded 100 acres of the legacy by the court.
§ On June 16, 1714 a “William Tully Robinson” was patented 350 acres from the head of the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River towards the North River in Lynnhaven Parish. It is believed that this patent was actually intended for William (4) Robinson who would have then been about 25 years old. However, this is the only known record indicating his middle name might have been “Tully.” In any event the land conveyed in the patent was apparently never accepted and more than a decade later was reissued to Richard Corbett on August 17, 1727.Tully (3) died November 12, 1723, and was buried in a family plot near Onancock on a plantation known today as Poulson Place (believed to have been the former Ye Folly plantation. His will, written 11 days before his death, was proved August 5, 1724.
The beneficiaries of his will included:Jacob Spires, John Williams, youngest daughter Ann Robinson, daughter Mary Robinson, son William Robinson, daughter West Smith, daughter Scarbourgh Wise, daughter Sarah Wise, daughter Sarah Smith, daughter Susanna McClenahan, daughter Elizabeth Smith and her husband John Smith, and William Robinson Smith (son of Elizabeth and John Smith). Tully (3)’s tombstone at Poulson Place in Onancock reads:Coll Tully Robinsonm
Late of Accomack County, VA, who was
Born August 31st 1658, and departed November 12, 1723,
Age 65 years and twenty
--- days, A gentleman honourable, an
Ornament to all plancs. He
Was loyall to his prince,
Unshaken to his friend, and
A true believer in the Church
of England.Additional research needs to be undertaken to:
1. Understand the issues Tully confronted as a member of the House of Burgesses.
2. Determine if Tully had any other sons that were not named in his will. There are several branches of other Robinson families that appear to live close to Tully’s decedents but no link has been found to prove a connection. Old parish records on the Eastern Shore might provide some clues in this regard.
3. To the extent possible, what education services were provided to Tully’s children? His only son William Robinson does not appear to have become active in the political and community affairs for another decade after his father’s death. Why is this so?
1 NOTE Benificiary in brother Wiliam's 1740 Will listed as AnnaHancock.
Witness to Brother-in Law's Will, George Smyth ( 5 PACDB 433).
1 NOTE Will: PAC 7DB490 7/17/1753 Will (event of 5/3/1753) of TullyRobinson Smyth Three daughters Elizabeth, Frances, and Susanah,mother, wife Francis. Wife and William Keeling George Rouviere,William Keeling.
He made a will November 25, 1699. Probate May 7, 1700. Argoll was named in his father's will, to receive the plantation after his mother's death. (Abstracts of Norfolk County Wills) The quit rent roll of Princess Anne County in 1704 shows him with 1,000 acres. (Purse & Person, p. 616)