Morris Robinson (businessman)

Robinson was born on September 2, 1784. He was a son of Lt.-Col. Beverly Robinson, a United Empire Loyalists in Nova Scotia, and Anna Dorothea Barclay. Among his siblings were elder brother, Beverley Robinson, who married Frances Duer (and elder sister of Morris' wife Henrietta),{{cite book |last1=Jasanoff |first1=Maya |title=Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World |date=15 February 2011 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-59530-0 |page=418 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84rJ77ALstEC&dq=Morris+Robinson+Henrietta+duer&pg=PA418 |access-date=15 March 2022 |language=en}} and Roxanne Robinson, who married Joseph T. Mabie.{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Kenneth T. |last2=Keller |first2=Lisa |last3=Flood |first3=Nancy |title=The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition |date=1 December 2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-18257-6 |page=987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lI5ERUmHf3YC&dq=Morris+Robinson+1784-1849&pg=PT987 |access-date=15 March 2022 |language=en}}

His paternal grandparents were merchant Beverley Robinson and Susanna Philipse (the eldest surviving daughter of Frederick Philipse II, 2nd Lord of Philipsburg Manor). Among his large extended family was uncle Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, a prominent Loyalist.{{cite book|last1=McGill|first1=John|title=The Beverley family of Virginia: descendants of Major Robert Beverley, 1641-1687, and allied families|date=1956|publisher=R.L. Bryan Co.|pages=998–999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2Y2AAAAMAAJ|access-date=3 May 2018|language=en}} His maternal grandparents were the Rev. Henry Barclay, rector of Trinity Church, and Mary Rutgers Barclay.{{cite web|last1=Bielinski|first1=Stefan|title=Henry Barclay |url=http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/bios/b/hebarclay.html |website=exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov |accessdate=October 27, 2017}} His uncle was Thomas Henry Barclay, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia.

In 1841, Robinson and Alfred Shipley Pell,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Alfred Shipley Pell was a nephew of William Ferris Pell, and a first cousin of Lt.-Gov. Duncan Pell and Robert Livingston Pell, all descendants of Thomas Pell, 1st Lord of the Pelham Manor.{{cite web |title=Neighbors |url=http://academic2.marist.edu/foy/esopus/esop07.htm#Pell |website=academic2.marist.edu |publisher=Marist College |accessdate=27 August 2019}}}} who had worked for the Mutual Safety Insurance Company, decided to form a life insurance company with Robinson as president.{{cite book |last1=Stalson |first1=J. Owen |title=Marketing Life Insurance: Its History in America |date=1942 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jW2xAAAAIAAJ |access-date=15 March 2022 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=A Card. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97618528/a-card/ |access-date=14 March 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=24 June 1853 |pages=8}} They received a charter for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York from the state of New York for The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York on April 12, 1842, and opened the doors for business less than a year later on February 1, 1843. Robinson served as president of Mutual Life until his death in May 1849 after which he was succeeded by Joseph B. Collins.{{cite book |last1=Clough |first1=Shepard Bancroft |title=A Century of American Life Insurance; A History of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, 1843-1943, by Shepard B. Clough |date=1946 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNOgwgEACAAJ |access-date=14 March 2022 |language=en}}

On December 1, 1813, Robinson was married to Henrietta Elizabeth Duer (1790–1839), a daughter of Continental Congressman William Duer and Lady Catherine Alexander Duer (a daughter of Sarah ({{nee}} Livingston) Alexander and William Alexander, Lord Stirling).{{cite book|last1=Duer|first1=William Alexander|title=The Life of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, Major-General in the Army of the United States During the Revolution: With Selections from His Correspondence|date=1847|publisher=New Jersey Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifewilliamalex03alexgoog/page/n299 265]|url=https://archive.org/details/lifewilliamalex03alexgoog|access-date=3 May 2018|language=en}} Among her siblings were Justice William Alexander Duer and jurist John Duer.{{cite book|last1=Browning|first1=Charles Henry|title=Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings|date=1891|publisher=Porter & Costes|pages=107–109|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIUaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA108|access-date=3 May 2018|language=en}} Together, they were the parents of:{{cite book|last1=Moffat|first1=R. Burnham|title=The Barclays of New York: Who They Are And Who They Are Not,--And Some Other Barclays|date=1904|publisher=R. G. Cooke|page=[https://archive.org/details/barclaysnewyork00moffgoog/page/n129 117]|url=https://archive.org/details/barclaysnewyork00moffgoog|access-date=3 May 2018|language=en}}

• Catherine Alexander Robinson (b. 1814), who married Alexander Slidell-Mackenzie, son of bank president John Slidell and brother of U.S. Senator John Slidell and Jane Slidell (wife of Commodore Matthew C. Perry), in 1835.{{cite book |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |date=1879 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2cf64qhtyngC&dq=Morris+Robinson+Henrietta+duer&pg=RA3-PA119 |access-date=15 March 2022 |language=en}}
• Henry Barclay Robinson (b. 1816), who married Cather Elizabeth Hudson, daughter of Joseph Hudson, in 1845. After her death in 1846, he married Maria Antoinette Winthrop, a daughter of Thomas C. Winthrop, Esq. in 1855.
• Susan Phillipse Robinson (b. 1818), who married Dr. George M. Odell in 1862.
• Frances Duer Robinson (1822), who married Edward Jones in 1841.
• Harriet Duer Robinson (b. 1828), who married Albert Gallatin II, son of James Gallatin (president of the Gallatin National Bank) and grandson of Albert Gallatin (the 4th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France), in 1849.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C05E2D7143FE63BBC4850DFB366838D669FDE|title=OBITUARY.; CAPT. JEREMIAH BRIGGS. JAMES GALLATIN. WHO OWNS THE TRIBUNE...|date=May 30, 1876|work=The New York Times|accessdate=December 28, 2015}}

His wife Henrietta died in 1839. Robinson died in New York City on May 5, 1849, and his funeral was held at St. Thomas Church.{{cite news |title=DIED |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97697611/died/ |access-date=15 March 2022 |work=The Evening Post |date=7 May 1849 |pages=3}}{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Lyman Horace |title=Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City |date=1898 |publisher=Historical Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PyRKAQAAMAAJ |access-date=15 March 2022 |language=en}}

Through his eldest daughter, he was a grandfather of Gen. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (1840–1889) and Lt.-Com. Alexander Slidell MacKenzie (1842–1867).

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Category:1784 births

Category:1849 deaths

Category:Businesspeople from New York (state)

Category:American businesspeople in insurance

Category:American corporate directors

Category:American bankers

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States