Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson
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Browse piano sheets by Robert Robinson on Zen Virtual Piano. Michael Robinson, a customs officer, and Mary Wilkin were the parents of Robert Robinson, who came into the world in Swaffham in Norfolk on 27 September 1735. Robinson was the youngest of the three children. He attended a grammar school in Swaffham and then the endowed school at Scarning. At Scarning the master, Reverend Joseph Brett, recognized an unusual mind. Shortly before Robinson came of age, his master Anderson renounced his indentures, gave him a high character, and added that Robinson was “more employed in reading than working, in following preachers than in attending customers.” On 24 May 1752 Robinson went to hear George Whitefield preach. Anderson's remark about following preachers and the 1752 visit to Whitefield may point to sermons appearing more than once in Robinson's youth and in the years of his apprenticeship. Each Sunday Robinson gave two or three sermons with no manuscript, kept up village preaching stations across the countryside, and held early services for working people. His volume of village sermons was not delivered as printed, because Robinson invariably preached extempore. Anderson's remark about following preachers and Robinson's own preaching without a manuscript both put preaching at the centre of the record, one from the hearer's side and one from the speaker's. In Cambridge on Sunday, 10 February 1788, Robinson delivered a sermon against the slave trade, which appeared in print as Slavery Inconsistent with the Spirit of Christianity. A year later Robinson followed it with An Essay on the Slave Trade. The University of Edinburgh offered Robinson an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1780, which he declined. Does the printed sermon of 1788, set beside the printed volume of village sermons, show Robinson's preaching reaching readers as well as listeners? Wheatley of Norwich printed a hymn beginning “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” in 1758, according to the list Robinson himself kept of his publications, though no copy of that printing survives.
Browse piano sheets by Robert Robinson on Zen Virtual Piano.
Michael Robinson, a customs officer, and Mary Wilkin were the parents of Robert Robinson, who came into the world in Swaffham in Norfolk on 27 September 1735. Robinson was the youngest of the three children. He attended a grammar school in Swaffham and then the endowed school at Scarning. At Scarning the master, Reverend Joseph Brett, recognized an unusual mind. Shortly before Robinson came of age, his master Anderson renounced his indentures, gave him a high character, and added that Robinson was “more employed in reading than working, in following preachers than in attending customers.”
On 24 May 1752 Robinson went to hear George Whitefield preach. Anderson's remark about following preachers and the 1752 visit to Whitefield may point to sermons appearing more than once in Robinson's youth and in the years of his apprenticeship.
Each Sunday Robinson gave two or three sermons with no manuscript, kept up village preaching stations across the countryside, and held early services for working people. His volume of village sermons was not delivered as printed, because Robinson invariably preached extempore. Anderson's remark about following preachers and Robinson's own preaching without a manuscript both put preaching at the centre of the record, one from the hearer's side and one from the speaker's.
In Cambridge on Sunday, 10 February 1788, Robinson delivered a sermon against the slave trade, which appeared in print as Slavery Inconsistent with the Spirit of Christianity. A year later Robinson followed it with An Essay on the Slave Trade. The University of Edinburgh offered Robinson an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1780, which he declined. Does the printed sermon of 1788, set beside the printed volume of village sermons, show Robinson's preaching reaching readers as well as listeners?
Wheatley of Norwich printed a hymn beginning “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” in 1758, according to the list Robinson himself kept of his publications, though no copy of that printing survives.
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Common questions
Swaffham in Norfolk was his birthplace, and the date was 27 September 1735. He was the youngest of three children of Michael Robinson, a customs officer, and Mary Wilkin.
Shortly before Robinson came of age, his master Anderson renounced his indentures, gave him a high character, and added that Robinson was “more employed in reading than working, in following preachers than in attending customers.”
Robinson delivered a Cambridge sermon against the slave trade on 10 February 1788, which was printed as Slavery Inconsistent with the Spirit of Christianity. An Essay on the Slave Trade came from him a year later.
Robinson's own list of publications includes a hymn that starts “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and Wheatley in Norwich printed it in 1758. That printing has not survived.