Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby

Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby (1708 – 10 October 1794) was an Anglo-Irish ecclesiastic.

He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1730, MA 1733, BD & DD 1748).

Robinson came to Ireland as chaplain to the Duke of Dorset in 1751. He was translated from the See of Kildare to the Archbishopric of Armagh in 1765.

In 1777 he was created Baron Rokeby, of Armagh in the Peerage of Ireland, with special remainder to Matthew Robinson (1694–1778) of West Layton, in the North Riding of the county of Yorkshire, his second cousin, twice removed.

In 1774 he founded the County Infirmary. In 1780 he donated land for the erection of a new prison and in 1771 he founded the Armagh Public Library. In 1790 he founded the Armagh Observatory as part of his plan for a university in Armagh. He died on 10 October 1794. His cousin Matthew Robinson, a noted eccentric, inherited his titles.

Robert Walpole called Robinson 'a proud but superficial man'. John Wesley accused him of being more interested in buildings than in the care of souls.

Richard Cumberland described him as "splendid, liberal, lofty ... publicly ambitious of great deeds, and privately capable of good ones, ... he made no court to popularity by his manners but he benefited a whole nation by his public works."

He died at Clifton, Bristol and was buried in Armagh Cathedral.

Architectural benefactor

The Canterbury Gate at Christ Church, Oxford, completed in 1873, is one monument to his munificence. The gate is inscribed:

• The Canterbury Gate, Christ Church, Oxford.

• Robinson's Rokeby-Lodge (aka Hall), near Dunleer, County Louth, Ireland, by Cooley and Johnston.

• Robinson's Rokeby Hall, and its conservatory.