Elizabeth Robson
{{Short description|British Quaker minister}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizabeth Robson
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 25 June 1771
| birth_place = Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
| death_date = December 11, 1843
| death_place = West Derby, Lancashire, England
| death_cause =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| parents =
| relatives =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
| nationality = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
}}
Elizabeth Robson or Elizabeth Stephenson (25 June 1771 – 11 December 1843) was a British Quaker minister. She travelled to preach including almost four years in America where she visited over 1,000 meetings.
Life
Robson was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire in 1771. Her parents were Elizabeth (born Mair) and Isaac Stephenson. Her father was a master mariner and he had been married twice before. Both of her parents were Quakers and they sent her to the Quaker run Ackworth School in Wakefield.{{Cite ODNB|title=Robson [née Stephenson], Elizabeth (1771–1843), Quaker minister|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47058|access-date=2020-09-09|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/47058}}
By the time of her marriage in 1796 her parents had died and she had been living with her brother Isaac. She married Thomas Robson and within four years she was acknowledged as a Quaker minister. During their marriage they had six children, but they also spent some time apart as Elizabeth travelled to preach.{{Cite web|title=Library of the Society of Friends Catalogue {{!}} Details|url=http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110006375|access-date=2020-09-09|website=quaker.adlibhosting.com}} She and her brother Isaac, who was a miller, had been accepted as ministers in 1810. In 1811, Thomas and Elizabeth made a new home in Sunderland.
A major expedition was to Ireland in 1813 which she completed in the company of her brother. Three years later she set out on a continental tour with William Allen, Charlotte Allen and Elizabeth Fry. They would visit Holland, Germany and Switzerland.{{Cite web|title=Library of the Society of Friends Catalogue {{!}} Details|url=http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110001630|access-date=2020-09-09|website=quaker.adlibhosting.com}}
Several women were travelling women preachers but Robson is acknowledged as a leading exponent. In her tour of America over nearly four years she visited 1,134 meetings, she travelled over 18,000 miles and she visited 3,592 families.{{Cite book|last=Healey|first=Robynne Rogers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXtzUQwsIFwC&q=elizabeth+robson&pg=PA229|title=From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community Among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-1850|date=2006|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-6017-8|language=en}} Robson was preaching the orthodox Quaker view as distinct from the Hicksite group who would cause a schism within the Society of Friends. The American Hicksite preacher Sarah Cadwallader visited every Quaker meeting place in America.{{Cite journal|last=Calvo|first=Janis|date=Autumn 1974|title=Quaker Women Ministers in NineteenthCentury America|url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571f06f145bf21e7d87b8867/t/58aa68a246c3c4e0699896f3/1487562932525/Week+1.pdf|journal=Quaker History|volume=63|issue=2|pages=75–93|doi=10.1353/qkh.1974.0003|s2cid=159636521}}
Death and legacy
Robson died in West Derby in 1843 and her husband lived on in Huddersfield until 1852.{{Cite web|title=Library of the Society of Friends Catalogue {{!}} Details|url=http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110005622|access-date=2020-09-09|website=quaker.adlibhosting.com}} Her son, Isaac, who was born in 1800 was a successful businessman who in 1844 followed his mother becoming a Quaker minister, Isaac too, would travel internationally to preach.{{Cite web|last=Robson|first=Isaac|title=Isaac Robson journals 1864-1871|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?cc=clementsead;c=clementsead;idno=umich-wcl-M-6027rob;didno=umich-wcl-M-6027rob;id=navbarbrowselink;view=text|access-date=2020-09-09|website=quod.lib.umich.edu}}
Some of her records are held by the Quakers and some of her correspondence is held in the National Archives in the UK.{{Cite web|last=Archives|first=The National|title=The Discovery Service|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F44515|access-date=2020-09-09|website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk|language=en-GB}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robson, Elizabeth}}