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Robinson, James Fisher
Posted by MarthaCrossSargent
Robinson, James Fisher
February 28, 2007 01:34PMRegistered: 6 years ago
Posts: 6,663History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, ed.
by William Henry Perrin, O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882. p. 608.
[Scott County] [Georgetown City and Precinct]
HON. JAMES FISHER ROBINSON, lawyer and farmer and ex-Governor of Kentucky,
was born in Scott County, Kentucky, October 4, 1800. His father, Jonathan
Robinson, was a native of Pennsylvania, and there married a daughter of
Capt. John Black, and began his married life as a farmer in Cumberland
County, of that State, on a tract of land given him by his father and
father-in-law, in the vicinity of their own residence. Shortly afterward
the war of the Revolution commenced, and during its first year he
volunteered; was commissioned Captain and served until the restoration of
peace. In 1785 he visited Kentucky and bought a farm of six hundred acres
in Scott County, upon which he erected cabins for his residence, and,
having returned to Pennsylvania in the following spring, removed with his
family to his new home in Kentucky, where he continued to reside as one of
the substantial and influential citizens until his death, in the
eighty-sixth year of his age. Gov. Robinson came of English and Scotch
ancestors; his great-grandfather, being a Dissenter, located in Ireland,
and there his grandfather, George Robinson, was born, and married a Scotch
lady. The entire family moved to America and settled in Pennsylvania,
about the middle of the seventeenth century. His grandfather, many years
after his father, settled in Kentucky, also removed to this State, where he
passed his life on an adjoining farm in Scott County, and there died at the
age of eighty-seven. He was an ardent Whig during the Revolution, and
served some time as a volunteer during that war. Gov. Robinson's education
was commenced under a private teacher at his father's home, was continued
under the Rev. Robt. Marshall, one of the most scholarly among the early
Presbyterian ministers of Kentucky, and his academic education was
completed at Forest Hill Academy, under the celebrated Samuel Wilson. He
subsequently entered Transylvania University, where he graduated in 1818.
He immediately began the study of law at Lexington, under Hon. William T.
Barry, one of the ablest men who ever flourished in Kentucky. A few years
afterward he obtained license and began the law practice at Georgetown, in
his native county, and there has continued actively engaged in his
profession until the present time, excepting short intervals of political
life. In 1851 he was elected, without opposition, to the Senate of
Kentucky, to represent the district composed of Scott and Fayette Counties,
and served one term. In August, 1861, after a warmly contested canvass,
he was again elected from the same senatorial district, defeating Hon.
James B. Beck. This canvass was made when the clouds of civil war were
gathering over the country, and the great subjects of vital importance to
the people were discussed; such as the right of secession, the impending
rebellion, the value of the Union, and the proper place to be occupied by
Kentucky in the inevitable conflict. In 1862 Gov. Magoffin, the Governor
of Kentucky resigned the office of chief executive, and, there being no
Lieutenant Governor, he being a member of the Senate, was immediately
elected Speaker, thereby becoming acting Governor of the State, and as
such at once qualified, and entered upon his duties, serving as Governor
until the end of the term. The period of his administration was filled
with troubles, difficulties and perils known to no other, before or since.
His conduct was in accord with the administration of the National
Government, and his unflinching devotion to the Union, and his strong,
manly guardianship of the affairs of the State, brought the best possible
good out of the evils of the times. Doubtless but few men in the State
were better suited to control its affairs at such a time, reared as he
had been, in his school of patriots, and from early life having espoused
the Whig principles of National Government, possessing eminently the firm,
unexplosive and temperate elements of character and withal being greatly
attached to the best interests of his native State. He has been a farmer
as well as a lawyer for the last twenty-five years, and now resides at
"Cardome" (from cara domus); his fine farm consisting of 300 acres, and
joining Georgetown, in a part of that most beautiful region called "Blue
Grass", he has been without political ambition, having lived too busy a
life to give his attention to the higher aims of the statesman, and being
unwilling to become a mere politician; although importuned to accept
public office at different times, he has usually declined, preferring to
devote himself to his professional and agricultural interests; as a lawyer,
he has taken a place among the most learned and able in Kentucky. He has
been concerned in many of the great law cases of the State, and so
thoroughly did he become identified with the interest of his clients, that
his business grew to great proportions, and gave him little time to devote
to politics, had he possessed the inclination. Had he given himself to
public affairs with that earnestness, learning and wisdom, which
characterized his professional life, he would have taken rank among the
first statesmen of his day. He possesses in a high degree, many broad
and noble traits, which not only gave him strength and dignity in the
court and before the jury, but, during his difficult term of office as
Chief Executive of the State, enabled him to administer its affairs with
great impartiality and justice; firmly suppressing wrong, and protecting
the people, regardless of their peculiar sympathies, in their just demands
as citizens. He is a man of commanding person and noble presence, and
probably no man of the old school is now living in Kentucky who would have
been able at any time to add ere dignity and honor to any position in the
gift of the people. Gov. Robinson is now living with his third wife, and
have eight living children.
Robinson Black Barry Beck Marshall
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Fayette-KY Cumberland-PA Ireland
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